The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) interviewed me this week about the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, published June 30. If you can read Farsi, click here. Otherwise, here’s an abridged English version. Following are my answers to...
Following Benjamin Netanyahu’s melodramatic speech to the US Congress, the New York Times, in an article about the supposed “Chasm” between the Israeli Prime Minister and President Barack Obama on the issue of Iran, explains that Obama would...
A Reuters headline reads “Iran says to continue building at Arak nuclear site despite deal”, thus implying that its ongoing construction would be in violation of its recent agreement with the U.S. and its Western allies. The lead paragraph...
There are a couple points worth noting about recent reporting on the recent talks between the U.S. and its Western allies and Iran over its nuclear program. 1) The first is that the media effectively accepts the U.S. government’s framework that Iran’s...
Vali Nasr, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, argues in a New York Times op-ed titled “America Mustn’t Be Naive About Iran” that, even though “Iran’s economy is indeed in dire straights” due to...
Under the headline “Iran’s Plan B for the Bomb”, Amos Yadlin (former chief of Israeli military intelligence director of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies) and Avner Golov (a researcher at the Institute) in a New York...
In an article on the election of Hassan Rouhani to the presidency of Iran, the New York Times throws in this line about the outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Mr. Ahmadinejad came to power and was re-elected — fraudulently, most observers said…...
The editors at the New York Times opine under the headline “Next Steps With Iran” that the U.S. “should reach out to” President-elect Hassan Rowhani and “put together a broader nuclear proposal” that “should include a process for acknowledging Iran’s right to pursue...
Bob Schieffer on CBS Face the Nation interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opening by asserting as fact that there is a “continued push for nuclear weapons in Iran”, even though there is no evidence Iran has a nuclear weapons program....
Under the headline “In Iran Race, All 8 Candidates Toe Hard Line on Nuclear Might”, the New York Times comments, with regard to the presidential contest, that when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program they are all saying the same thing: there will be no backing down, no...
FPJ — In the February issue of Foreign Policy, Jacques E. C. Hymans urges that it is time for the U.S. and Israel to stop overreacting about Iran’s nuclear program, which might otherwise be a welcome departure from the usual fearmongering, but for the fact...
Reuters reports that, According to an IAEA report released in mid-November, Iran has a stockpile of 134.9 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium, bringing it closer to the ability to produce the 90 percent uranium needed to provide fissile material for atomic bombs. This...
The headline in the Washington Post announces: Iran could use U.N. talks as cover to build bomb, Ban Ki-moon says The article opens: The United Nations must be decisive and swift in judging whether diplomacy can resolve world concerns about Iran’s nuclear program,...
ICYMI: @JeremyRHammond's obliteration of Robert Jervis' awful Foreign Affairs article is genius. http://t.co/74hBlWTM via @ForPolJournal — Nima Shirazi (@WideAsleepNima) February 12, 2013 FPJ — The January/February issue of Foreign...
IntroductionHow the CIA Coordinated a Campaign of DisinformationA Counterintelligence SuccessConclusion Introduction Download this paper (PDF) The George Washington University National Security Archive recently published a newly released CIA document from January 2006...
Steven Aftergood at Secrecy News obtained a copy of a Department of Defense report to Congress that has some interesting bits. It begins by saying that “Iran’s grand strategy remains challenging U.S. influence”, which, of course, means refusing to obey orders from...
On the failure of the P5+1 talks with Iran over its nuclear program, the New York Times says (emphasis added): The chief Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council and the personal representative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,...
At Foreign Policy Journal, I have an editorial policy: Articles inciting violence, encouraging or defending violations of international law, etc. will be rejected. FPJ is unashamedly pro-peace, pro-respect for international law, and anti-establishment propaganda. So...
The New York Times reports that as the P5+1 talks with Iran forge ahead, “the United States and five other major powers were prepared to offer a package of inducements to obtain a verifiable agreement to suspend its efforts to enrich uranium closer to weapons grade.”...
Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week with a headline asking “What Happened to Israel’s Reputation?” He repeats many of his standard hasbara, much of which I addressed in my article “Michael B. Oren’s Worship...