iran
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May: President Obama’s last to-do list
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Some goals he won’t achieve, other goals it would be better if he doesn’t achieve Barack Obama is now in his final days as president but, as he made clear on his visit to Asia last week, there are goals he still hopes to achieve before leaving office. Closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay…
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May: Iran and the future of the Middle East
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Obama’s bet on the Islamic republic moderating is a long-shot Nixon went to China. Obama will not be going to Iran. The 1972 visit of President Richard M. Nixon to the People’s Republic included meetings with both Chairman Mao Zedong, the communist revolutionary leader, and Premier Zhou Enlai, the pragmatic head of the government. Détente…
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U.S. says $400 million payment to Iran was contingent on release of prisoners
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The Obama administration said Thursday that a $400 million cash payment to Iran seven months ago was contingent on the release of a group of American prisoners. It is the first time the U.S. has so clearly linked the two events, which critics have painted as a hostage-ransom arrangement. State Department spokesman John Kirby repeated the administration’s…
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May: What does America owe Iran?
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The Islamic Republic’s claims against the U.S. should not outweigh those of Iran’s victims An unmarked cargo plane filled with $400 million in cash lands in Tehran. Four American hostages held by Iran’s rulers are set free. These revelations have sparked two controversies. First: Did the Obama administration pay ransom to the Islamic Republic of Iran,…
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Without evidence, Trump suggests Clinton-scientist link
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Republican Donald Trump and his allies are suggesting that rival Hillary Clinton’s emails may be responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed for spying for the United States, even though there is no credible evidence of any such link. Some emails released by the State Department that had passed through Clinton’s homebrew server appeared…
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Kerry defends cash payment in wake of Iran deal
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A $400 million pallet of cash delivered to the Iranian government at the same time a complicated nuclear deal was settled and four Americans were released was unrelated and not a ransom, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday. Kerry flatly denied any connection between the cash – and an additional $1.3 billion interest payment…
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May: The problem with globalism
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And why isolationism is not the solution Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo.” That line from Donald Trump’s long and emphatic speech to the Republican National Convention jumped out at me. I think I know what he meant: that he prioritizes America’s national interests above those of the wider world. If so, most Americans…
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May: The jihadis in France, the Islamists in Turkey
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While Western leaders dither, others are shaping the 21st century Streets ran red with blood in both France and Turkey last week. A terrorist atrocity and an attempted coup are quite different events. But underlying both is this question: How are the most dynamic forces within the Islamic world shaping the 21st century? Jihadism is,…
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May: Obama’s Iran experiment
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As a result of his nuclear deal, concluded a year ago, the regime has not become more moderate A hypothetical question: Suppose the Islamic State wanted to buy some American airplanes, and promised not to use them to support terrorists. Would you be OK with that? I’m guessing not. Now suppose that the Islamic Republic…
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May: Terrorism and economic warfare
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It’s a one-two punch meant to bring about a Middle East without Jews Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market bills itself as the “heartbeat of Israeli culinary art.” Dozens of small restaurants and shops offer cheese, wine, bread, fish, olives, pasta, burgers – pretty much anything you can imagine and quite a bit that you probably cannot.…
