POLITICS: Official Says Iran Accepts P5+1 Talks Proposal

A senior Iranian official reportedly told members of the Iranian parliament Monday that Iran has agreed to freeze its enrichment programme for six weeks and begin negotiations with the P5+1 group of states as early as next week, according to reports of that decision by the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) and by a Farsi-language website in Iran.

INDIA/US: Singh Pushes For Nuclear Deal

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has plunged his Congress party and the country’s ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government into a grave crisis by staking his personal reputation on pushing through a U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation deal.

POLITICS-US: Hawks Belie Iran's "Existential Threat" to Israel

New arguments by analysts close to Israeli thinking in favour of U.S. strikes against Iran cite evidence of Iranian military weakness in relation to the U.S. and Israel and even raise doubts that Iran is rushing to obtain such weapons at all.

POLITICS-US: Even the Rare Bush Success Leaves a Sour Taste

While, in his dreams, U.S. President George W. Bush might have seen a "Mission Accomplished" banner unfurled as the cooling tower at North Korea's plutonium-producing plant was blown up, Friday's internationally televised fireworks at Yongbyon offered merely a glimmer of possible success in a foreign policy legacy that seems to be getting darker by the day.

POLITICS: U.S. and China Go Bump in the Middle East

For China these days it seems that nothing - not rising energy prices; not sanctions aimed at its more unsavoury business partners, Burma and Sudan; not even the prospect of a nuclear Iran - can curb its thirst for oil.

DISARMAMENT: 2020 Vision Aimed at Dismantling Nukes

Jun 26 (IPS) - When leaders of the world's eight most industrialised nations - the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, known as the G8 - hold their annual summit meeting in Hokkaido next month, they are likely to reject a seemingly backhanded invitation: a visit to the Peace Memorial Museum in the city of Hiroshima.

Q&A: "Neglecting Democracy Is More Dangerous Than Nuclear Weapons"

While the United States and Britain are talking about tougher sanctions on Iran, including sanctions on its gas and oil industry - Tehran's major source of revenue - Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Noble Peace Prize laureate and international human rights defender, argues that this tactic has not weakened the government, but the Iranian people.

Q&A: “Grand Bargain With Iran Was a Missed Opportunity”

Last week, the European Union offered Iran an incentives package to stop enriching uranium in order to initiate negotiations with the West. Mere days later, and before Tehran had responded, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the Europeans planned to freeze the assets of Iran's largest bank in a bid to discourage Tehran from developing "nuclear weapons".

ENERGY: Only Nuclear Dreams Mushrooming

The proposal by the Paris-based International Energy Agency for more than 1,400 nuclear power plants to be built over the next 40 years is unfeasible, environmental activists say.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad Faces Heavyweight Foe in Larijani

This week, Iran's new speaker of Parliament, Ali Larijani, proposed forming two joint committees of the legislative and judiciary branches in an effort to reconcile new legislation with the Islamic penal code.

MIDEAST: Remark Raises Oil Price, and Temperatures

As Transportation Minister, one might have expected that Shaul Mofaz would have given greater consideration to the impact his comments would have on the already galloping price of a barrel of crude oil. Maybe he did. But with the scent of elections in the air in Israel, the international ramifications of his comments were apparently not uppermost on his mind. Far more narrow political calculations clearly were.

US/IRAN: Larijani’s Election Can Boost Congressional Diplomacy

Iranian Nobel prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has long argued that the United States and Iran need to have a dialogue with each other at three different levels: between their executive branches, between their civil societies and between their legislatures.

UKRAINE: Nuclear Power Seen As the Answer to Russia

Ukraine is embarking on a costly and inefficient path of nuclear development, hoping it will halt its energy dependence on Russia.

US/IRAN: Necessity Is the Mother of Negotiation

Republican presidential aspirant John McCain's recent criticism of Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama's foreign policy platform exposes contradictions with the George W. Bush administration's own actions.

EUROPE: New Safety Concerns Raised Over Nuclear Plants

Some international organisations and governments in industrialised countries are pushing for further development of nuclear power, but amidst growing doubts over the safety of several nuclear installations.

IRAN: Can P5+1 Offer Break the Nuclear Stalemate?

The P5+1 - the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany - will present Tehran with a secret incentive package in the next few days to convince Iran to suspend its enrichment programme and enter negotiations.

INDIA/US: Nuke Deal Set to Time Out

Faced with continuing domestic opposition to the United States-India nuclear cooperation deal, the Indian government has launched 'one last push' to complete negotiations before the window of opportunity slams shut.

INDIA/IRAN: Course Correction

Relations between India and Iran, which deteriorated over the past three years from traditional friendship and warmth into mutual suspicion and tension, have started looking up again.

US/IRAN: Changing of the Guard Key to Talks

A week after Senator Hillary Clinton's harsh remarks that if hardliners in Tehran were to launch an attack on Israel, it would result in the "total obliteration" of Iran, a Republican member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Peter Hoekstra, suggested on CNN that "engaging in a full-court diplomatic press with Iran is a good thing to begin the process" of reaching out to Tehran.

CHILE: Environmentalists Withdraw Backing from Government

Twenty-three environmental groups in Chile withdrew their support from President Michelle Bachelet, complaining that she had failed to live up to an agreement they had signed with her during her election campaign.

MIDEAST: Israel Sees Iran Threat Recede

In the clearest indication yet that Israel now believes Iran's nuclear aspirations will be curbed, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that efforts being undertaken by the international community will ensure that Tehran does not acquire nuclear capability.