I speculated last week that, notwithstanding the American public’s rather obvious war wariness,  making the public case for military action against Iran wouldn’t be all that difficult given the three decades of antipathy between the United States and the Islamic Republic that started with the Iranian Hostage Crisis. A new poll from The Hill would [...]

With the attacks on Syrian civilians seemingly getting worse by the day, the United Nations Security Council took up a resolution that would back efforts by the Arab League to bring an end to the crackdown, an effort that collapsed in failure as both Russia and China exercised their veto power: UNITED NATIONS — A [...]

We need to have opinions on a subject as serious as war with Iran.

Mitt Romney’s view of the ideal relationship between the United States and Israel is, at the very least. quite odd, and, potentially, dangerous.

The son of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is among a group of Americans who are being barred from leaving Egypt: CAIRO — The Egyptian authorities have blocked the son of a United States cabinet member and at least five other American employees of two Washington-backed nongovernmental organizations from leaving Egypt in an apparent escalation [...]

One year later, Egypt’s revolution remains unfinished.

The United States is sending a warning to Iran not to play games with the Straits Of Hormuz: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is relying on a secret channel of communication to warn Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that closing the Strait of Hormuz is a “red line” that would provoke an American response, [...]

Given the increasing tensions between the United States and Iran in the Straits of Hormuz, this is good to see: (CNN) — U.S. sailors from a carrier strike group whose recent presence in the Persian Gulf drew the ire of Iranian military officials have rescued 13 of the Middle Eastern country’s sailors from a hijacked [...]

Philip Hammond addressed the Atlantic Council this morning in advance of a meeting with Leon Panetta.

Rick Santorum has some bizarre views when it comes to the dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Bernard Finel argues that those of us arguing against war in Iran are doing it wrong. He’s right.

Vehement disagreement with the policy views of a country and prejudice based on immutable traits are not the same.

Less than a week after American forces finally vacated the country, Iraq looks to be returning to form: BAGHDAD — A wave of coordinated explosions ripped across Baghdad early on Thursday, killing at least 63 people, wounding more than 180 and jolting a country already unsettled by a deepening political crisis and the absence of [...]

It didn’t take very long after the removal of American troops, for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki to begin trying to consolidate power: BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s Sunni vice president denied charges he ran a hit squad that killed government officials during the nation’s wave of sectarian bloodletting, accusing the Shiite-led government Tuesday of waging [...]

The Christian Science Monitor is out with a story that Iranian engineers are claiming that they were actually able to electronically take control of the RQ-170 drone captured last week: Iran guided the CIA’s “lost” stealth drone to an intact landing inside hostile territory by exploiting a navigational weakness long-known to the US military, according [...]

Newt Gingrich’s comments about Palestinian nationhood came up during last night’s debate.

Once again, Newt Gingrich speaks without thinking.

Syria’s leader Bashar Assad is in full denial mode: PARIS — A defiant President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, speaking in a rare television interview broadcast on Wednesday, denied ordering the bloody crackdown that has convulsed his land for the past nine months and disputed a United Nations estimate that 4,000 people had been killed as [...]

The Iranian military claims a U.S. drone was shot-down in western Iran, but all the United States is admitting is that plane is missing: A secret U.S. surveillance drone that went missing last week in western Afghanistan appears to have crashed in Iran, in what may be the first case of such an aircraft ending [...]

Via the BBC:  ‘End of virginity’ if women drive, Saudi cleric warns A report in Saudi Arabia has warned that if Saudi women were given the right to drive, it would spell the end of virginity in the country. The report was prepared for Saudi Arabia’s legislative assembly, the Shura Council, by a well-known conservative [...]

Political instability in Iraq nearly became a reality earlier this week: BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister says a bombing in the Green Zone earlier this week was an assassination attempt against him. During an interview with The Associated Press Saturday, Nouri al-Maliki said the parliament building or speaker also could have been targets but preliminary [...]

Just a reminder: Turkey is a NATO ally.

There’s a little historical revisionism going on on the right.

The British government has reacted pretty quickly to yesterday’s embassy attack in Teheran: The UK is to expel all Iranian diplomats following the storming of its embassy in Tehran, Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced. He said he had ordered the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London. Tuesday’s attack by hundreds of protesters [...]

Well, this sounds familiar: Dozens of hard-line Iranian students stormed the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The mob moved into the diplomatic compound two days after Iran’s parliament approved [...]

No doubt eager to shore up some semblance of foreign policy credibility, Rick Perry sat down with Charles Krauthammer and a few other Fox commentators yesterday and went further than any other Republican candidate when it comes to the uprising in Syria: In an appearance on Fox News Monday evening, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said [...]

The protesters have returned to Tahrir Square, and so has the violence.

Herman Cain has either doubled down on his foreign policy ignorance or proven himself a man of great nuance.

We’re running out of excuses.

Karim Sadjapour writes about a wargaming scenario he recently participated in with a group of former U.S. officials and experts on Israel and Iran to try to play out how an Israeli strike on Iran might go. Sadjapour was on the Iranian team and, as he relates, it didn’t turn out well for anyone: Iran’s [...]

The Secretary of Defense has some words of warning for those advocating military action against Iran.

Obama to Sarkozy on Netanyahu: “You’re sick of him — but I have to deal with him every day!”

Let’s compare Iraq and Iran.

An attack against Iran’s nuclear weapons research facility won’t be an easy thing.

It’s time for another round of speculation about Iran and its nuclear program.

Via the BBC:  Syria unrest: Tanks ‘open fire’ in Homs Tanks mounted with machine-guns have opened fire in the Syrian city of Homs, activists have reported. It comes a day after authorities in Damascus agreed to an Arab League plan calling on the government to pull the military out of cities. The UK-based Syrian Observatory [...]

The U.S. drone war in Yemen has taken out another victim: A wave of CIA drone strikes targeting al-Qaeda figures in Yemen is stoking widespread anger there that U.S. policy is cruel and misguided, prioritizing counterterrorism over a genuine solution to the country’s raging political crisis. Politics has never been a concern to Sam al-Homiganyi [...]

The post-Gaddafi era has been made permanent. What comes next?

An Israeli solider that has held by Hamas for five years has been released after negotiations that also resulted in the freeing of thousands of Palestinian prisoners: JERUSALEM — An Israeli soldier held for more than five years by the militant Palestinian group Hamaswas traded on Tuesday for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails [...]

Some reports today seem to indicate that the United States is abandoning plans to keep a contingent of military forces in Iraq past the December 31st expiration of the current Status of Forces Agreement: BAGHDAD—The Obama administration is abandoning plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline. A senior administration official [...]

Not surprisingly, the Egyptian military seems to be expanding its power and many are wondering what that means for the promises of more democracy: CAIRO — Egypt’s military rulers are moving to assert and extend their own power so broadly that a growing number of lawyers and activists are questioning their willingness to ultimately submit [...]

What’s the logic behind Iran’s alleged plot to commit terrorist attacks inside the United States?

The Justice Department claims to have disrupted a major Iranian-backed terrorist attack in the United States.

Via the BBC:  Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections Women in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has announced. He said they would also have the right to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council. The move was welcomed [...]

We may have entered a new and dangerous phase of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

President Obama explained his position on the Palestinian statehood resolution today, but one wonders if anyone listened.

Rick Perry’s speech criticizing the President’s policies in the Middle East raised more questions than it answered.

It’s General Assembly time again in New York City and, along with the ongoing controversy over the Palestinian statehood bid, that means a return visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahdmedinejad, who never ceases to find something offensive or idiotic to say when he addresses the world body. This year, though, there’s a Presidential election going [...]

On the eve of the United Nations General Assembly session that is likely to stoke plenty of tension in the Middle East, Turkey seems to want to take the region in a very different direction: ANKARA, Turkey — A newly assertive Turkey offered on Sunday a vision of a starkly realigned Middle East, where the [...]

Foolishly, the Palestinians are going forward with their effort to get Palestinian statehood recognized by the United Nations.