Best Course for Iranian Nuclear Talks: Take it Slow, Experts Say: What We're Reading Now
Apr 23, 2012

Iran

Best Course for Iranian Nuclear Talks: Take it Slow, Experts Say
Roy Gutman, McClatchy Newspapers - April 22, 2012
After 15 months of rising tensions and fears of military confrontation, the foreign policy chief of the European Union sat down for dinner April 13 with the personal representative of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the Iranian consulate, not far from Istanbul's Grand Bazaar.

Netanyahu Warns of Islamist, Nuclear "Marriage," Welt Reports
Niklas Magnusson, Bloomberg - April 22, 2012
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the greatest threat to world peace is “the marriage of a militant Islamist regime with nuclear weapons,” including Iran developing the bomb or the Taliban seizing power in Pakistan, Welt am Sonntag reported

Military Chief: Israel Increases Covert Options
Associated Press - April 22, 2012
Israel's military chief of staff says he has ordered his forces to step up covert operations in enemy countries.

Ex-National Security Adviser: No Apologies to Israel Over Iran's Nuke Program
Ben Birnbaum, Washington Times - April 20, 2012
President Obama’s former national security adviser says the U.S. has no reason to apologize to Israel for its handling of Iran and notes that the U.S. has been able to “contain” other nations that have acquired nuclear weapons.

Iran's Parchin Complex: Why Are Nuclear Inspectors So Focused on it?
Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor - April 20, 2012
Parchin. In the annals of Iran's controversial nuclear program, the sprawling military base southeast of Tehran may hold clues to past weapons-related work – or it may not.

U.S. and NATO Finalize Pacts on Ending Afghan War: What We're Reading Now
Apr 19, 2012

Korean Peninsula

This Time, a Less Predictable Pyongyang
Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times - April 18, 2012
Things tend to repeat themselves enough in the continuing North Korean missile and nuclear crises that analysts and journalists often joke that if they pulled out their old reports and changed the dates, they could pretty much describe the latest episode.

S. Korea deploys new missile capable of hitting anywhere in N. Korea
Yonhap News Agency - April 19, 2012
South Korea has deployed a new long-range cruise missile that puts nuclear and missile sites in the entire North Korean territory within striking distance, defense ministry officials said Thursday, amid growing security jitters sparked by the North's botched rocket launch.

Afghanistan

U.S. and NATO Finalize Pacts on Ending Afghan War
Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times - April 18, 2012
The United States and its allies in NATO finalized agreements on Wednesday to wind down the war in Afghanistan, paving the way for President Obama to announce at a NATO summit meeting in Chicago next month that the unpopular, nearly 11-year-old conflict is close to an end.

Afghanistan needs firm security funding pledges, U.S. says
David Cloud, Los Angeles Times - April 18, 2012
The United States and its allies are promising to provide more than $4 billion a year for Afghanistan's army and police after international forces depart in 2 1/2 years, but they still lack firm financial pledges to meet the target, U.S. officials said.

Impact of Iran Sanctions Widens: What We're Reading Now
Apr 04, 2012

Iran

Impact of Iran Sanctions Widens
Rick Gladstone, New York Times - April 4, 2012
The Iran sanctions effort led by the United States appeared to be causing new fractures in the Iranian economy on Tuesday, with leading oil companies in South Africa and Greece suspending imports of Iran’s crude oil, further signs of emergency self-reliance emerging in Iran, and an influential former Iranian president publicly challenging his country’s anti-American stoicism.

Can Brazil Stop Iran?
Bernard Aronson, New York Times - April 3, 2012
Brazil, the saying used to go, is the land of the future — and always will be. But when Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, visits the White House next week, she will come as the leader of a country whose future has arrived.

Don't Fear a Nuclear Armed Iran
Stephen A. Cook, NPR - April 3, 2012
On March 21, Haaretz correspondent Ari Shavit wrote a powerful op-ed in the New York Times that began with this stark and stunning claim: "An Iranian atom bomb will force Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt to acquire their own atom bombs." Indeed, it has become axiomatic among Middle East watchers, nonproliferation experts, Israel's national security establishment, and a wide array of U.S. government officials that Iranian proliferation will lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. President Barack Obama himself, in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) last month, said that if Iran went nuclear, it was "almost certain that others in the region would feel compelled to get their own nuclear weapon.

Self-Defeating
Trita Parsi, Daily Beast - April 3, 2012
Netanyahu's government and its supporters argue that a strike on Iran will benefit Israel and America.  But a strike on Iran won't destory it's nuclear facilities, and are more likely benefit than harm Iran in the long run.

Iraq Says Iran Proposes Baghdad as Nuclear Talks Venue
Reuters - April 4, 2012
Iran has proposed holding the next round of talks with six world powers over its disputed nuclear program next week in Iraq instead of Turkey, Iraq's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Edward Markey to introduce bill to trim nuclear capability: What We're Reading Now
Feb 08, 2012

IRAN

Obama Seeks to Cool War Fever While Keeping Up Pressure on Iran
Tony Karon, TIME Magazine (Blog) - February 7, 2012
Nobody likely envies the challenge President Barack Obama faces getting his “messaging” right on Iran. He must meet the demands of election-year politics and continue to press Tehran’s back to the wall over its nuclear program, all the while avoiding the eruption of a major new Middle East war.

Israeli radio in Farsi transmits peace to Iran
Aaron Heller, Associated Press - February 7, 2012
While Israeli leaders are increasingly sounding belligerent warnings of a potential military strike against Iran's nuclear installations, a group of Iranian-Israelis are transmitting a different message.

Iran says can hit U.S. interests worldwide if attacked
Vladimir Soldatkin, Reuters - February 8, 2012
Iran is capable of carrying out military strikes on U.S. interests all around the world if the Islamic Republic is attacked by the United States, Iran's ambassador to Moscow said on Wednesday.

KOREAN PENINSULA

U.S. spy chief due here to discuss N. Korea
Yonhap News Agency - February 8, 2012
The head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) David Petraeus plans to visit South Korea this weekend to discuss the situation on North Korea after the death of Kim Jong-il, a Seoul government source said Wednesday.

Amid New Sanctions, Obama Confronts the Challenges of Diplomacy with Iran: What We're Reading Now
Jan 24, 2012

IRAN

Bid to restart Iran nuclear talks pits Western demands against Tehran’s defiance
Ali Akbar Dareini, AP - January 24, 2012
The last time Iran’s nuclear envoys held talks with the U.S. and other world powers, the negotiations limped along until a parting shot by the Islamic Republic: Its labs boosted the enrichment levels of uranium in reply to demands for a full-scale freeze.

Amid New Sanctions, Obama Confronts the Challenges of Diplomacy with Iran
Tony Karon, TIME Magazine (Blog) - January 23, 2012
Despite the deafening racket of the mass-media drums of war, neither President Obama nor the Pentagon has an appetite for a confrontation with Iran that could unleash havoc across the Middle East and would at best simply delay Tehran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Foreign Policy: Stop The Madness
Yousaf Butt, NPR - January 23, 2012
Olli Heinonen is alarmed that Iran has begun producing 20 percent enriched uranium at a new, deeply buried site, and calculates that Iranian scientists could further purify the material to the 90 percent enrichment needed for a bomb in about six months' time.

Bank Tejarat Banned by U.S., EU in Move Stifling Iran Trade
Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Bloomberg Businessweek - January 24, 2012
The U.S. and European Union took steps to cut off from the international financial system Bank Tejarat, the last institution financing high-volume exports and imports between Iran and Europe.

What Kim Jong-Il Learned from Qaddafi's Fall: Never Disarm: What We're Reading Now
Oct 24, 2011

IRAN
AP Exclusive: Note shows big power split over Iran
George Jahn, AP - October 24, 2011
Russia and China are urging the chief U.N nuclear inspector to scrap or delay U.S.-backed plans to reveal intelligence on Iran's alleged nuclear arms experiments, in a bluntly worded confidential document obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

Ahmadinejad on Gadhafi, Syria, alleged plot, nuclear weapons and America's role
Global Public Square (CNN) - October 22, 2011
Fareed Zakaria just interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They talked about Moammar Gadhafi's death, policy toward Syria, the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., Iran's nuclear ambitions and America's global role.

Iran Could Face New Atomic Penalties: EU
Global Security Newswire - October 24, 2011
Iran could face new punitive measures if it does not join new multilateral discussions over atomic activities some countries suspect are geared toward weapons development, the European Union said on Sunday

NORTH KOREA
What Kim Jong-Il Learned from Qaddafi's Fall: Never Disarm
Mira Rapp-Hooper & Kenneth N. Waltz, The Atlantic - October 24, 2011
As the U.S. tries to restart multiparty talks with North Korea, it may find that the rogue state suddenly sees greater value in keeping its nuclear arsenal.

Pakistan warns Afghanistan after pact with India: What We're Reading Now
Oct 06, 2011

IRAN
   
Pressure builds on Iran at nuclear watchdog
Barbara Slavin, Asia Times - October 6, 2011
As Iran continues a slow march toward potential nuclear weapons capability, diplomatic action to contain the program is likely to shift to the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose director general, Yukiya Amano, has taken a harder line than his predecessor about alleged military research by Iran's nuclear scientists.

Is Israel Again Weighing an Attack on Iran's Nuclear Facilities?
Tony Karon, TIME (blog) - October 5, 2011
Panetta's comments, coming barely a month after the U.S. reportedly agreed to deliver 55 bunker-busting GBU-28 bombs to Israel, were widely viewed as an "down, boy" message to any adventurist bomb-Iran impulses on the part of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

NORTH & SOUTH KOREA
South Korea’s new nuclear envoy heads to US for talks on North Korea’s atomic program
AFP - October 6, 2011
South Korea’s new chief nuclear envoy is heading to the United States for talks on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry says Lim Sung-nam left on a three-day trip Thursday to meet with State Department and White House officials.

S. Korean Navy Says New Base Will Not Host US Military Vessels
Steve Herman, VoA - October 5, 2011
South Korean defense officials say a controversial proposed naval base, off the southern coast on Jeju island, will not allow permanent stationing of U.S. naval vessels.  And, they say the facility, to be completed in 2015, is meant to deter North Korea, not China.

Koreas keep up appearances in Beijing: What We're Reading Now
Sep 21, 2011

IRAN
Iran Blasts Killing of Its Nuclear Scientists
George Jahn, TIME Magazine - September 21, 2011
Blaming Israel for assassinating its nuclear scientists, Iran said Tuesday it would not retaliate for the "ugly phenomenon" but would seek more international support against such killings.

U.S. Considers Crisis Communications Link to Iran
Global Security Newswire - September 20, 2011
Government officials in the United States are examining the potential creation of an emergency naval communications link to Iran following a number of "near-miss" confrontations between the sides in the Persian Gulf, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday

NORTH KOREA
Rival Koreas met, but no progress on nuclear talks
Scott McDonald, The Boston Globe - September 21, 2011
Representatives of North and South Korea met Wednesday, but showed no sign of bridging their differences to resume negotiations on ending Pyongyang's nuclear program after it walked out two years ago.

Koreas keep up appearances in Beijing
Sunny Lee, Asia Times - September 21, 2011
Some diplomacy is purely for public consumption, with little substance to back it up. This week's meeting in Beijing between the nuclear negotiators of North Korea and South Korea is one such example.

What We're Reading Now
Jul 19, 2011

IRAN
Iran Claims It Is Installing New Centrifuges
Associated Press - July 19, 2011
Iran said Tuesday that it was installing new and efficient centrifuges aimed at speeding up its nuclear enrichment amid fears Tehran is moving toward weapon-grade enriched uranium. The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, said International Atomic Energy Agency is monitoring the work but did not elaborate on the specifications of the machines. The move comes despite four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions over Tehran's refusal to halt enrichment.

Herman Cain to Iran: 'If you mess with Israel you're messing with the USA'
Los Angeles Times - July 18, 2011
Herman Cain loves deep dish pizza, but he may love Israel more. How do I know? I'm pretty sure he wouldn't go to war with a man who stole a  pepperoni slice; but if he were president and if a country, even one with a huge army like Iran's, caused problems with an ally like Israel, there'd be trouble. "If you mess with Israel you're messing with the United States of America," the Georgia businessman laid out plainly in his "Cain Doctrine."

Iran may deploy warships in Atlantic
AFP - July 19, 2011
TEHRAN — The Iranian navy plans on deploying warships to the Atlantic Ocean as part of a programme to ply international waters, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari said in statements published Tuesday. But the commander of the navy, quoted by Kayhan newspaper, said he was waiting for "final approval" before launching the operation.

What We’re Reading Now
Jul 14, 2011

IRAN  
Iran moves nuclear enrichment programme to underground bunker
Damien McElroy, Telegraph- July 13, 2011
Iran has begun efforts to shift its nuclear enrichment programme to an underground bunker where experts warn it could stage a last dash for a nuclear weapon.

The rise and fall of Iran's Ahmadinejad
Karim Sadjadpour, Washington Post- July 13, 2011
While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s demagoguery and Holocaust revisionism on the world stage have earned him alarmist comparisons to Adolf Hitler, his recent, ignoble fall from grace reveals the Iranian president for what he really is: the dispensable sword of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

PAKISTAN
Pakistan violence flares after Minister's comments
Hamid Shaikh and Zeeshan Haider, Reuters- July 13, 2011
Fresh political violence gripped Pakistan's commercial capital, Karachi, on Thursday, leaving 14 people dead in fighting sparked by a senior ruling party leader's criticism of the city's dominant political group.

US-Pakistanis meet amid tension, military aid
Kimberly Dozier and Pauline Jelinek,Associated Press- July 13, 2011
High-level U.S.-Pakistan visits were unfolding Wednesday for the first time since Washington announced it was cutting more than one-third of its military aid to its terrorism-fighting partner.