IRAN: Closeness to US Weakens Indian Diplomacy

As tension builds up in the Persian Gulf amidst the ongoing deployment of two United States aircraft carrier groups, India remains marginal to efforts for a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Iran's nuclear activities, despite New Delhi's long-standing friendly relations with Tehran.

POLITICS: Arabs Less Worried About Iran, Poll Finds

U.S. and Israeli hopes of forging of a Sunni Arab alliance to contain Iran and its regional allies may be misplaced, at least at the popular level, according to a major survey of six Arab countries released here Thursday.

POLITICS-US: Lawmakers Move to Restrain Bush on Iran

Increasingly concerned about the escalating rhetoric against Iran by senior U.S. officials, including President George W. Bush, members of Congress are trying to put limits on his ability to attack the Islamic Republic.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Hawks and Doves Clash over U.S. Base

The new right-wing government of the Czech Republic, eager to prove its "prestige" as a reliable ally of the United States, last week started negotiations for the setting up of a military base in the Czech Republic. It will not be easy.

POLITICS: Israeli Realism on Iran Belies Threat Rhetoric

When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared last week at the Herzliya conference that Israel could not risk another "existential threat" such as the Nazi holocaust, he was repeating what has become the dominant theme in Israel's campaign against Iran - that it cannot tolerate an Iran with the technology that could be used to make nuclear weapons, because Iran is fanatically committed to the physical destruction of Israel.

POLITICS: What if Iran Suspends? A Western Dilemma

As the Feb. 21 deadline for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment programme fast approaches, both Iran and the West are scrambling to prepare themselves for all possible moves by the other side.

POLITICS-US: Mideast Strategy Increasingly Targets Iran

Six months after last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iran has become the George W. Bush administration's "Public Enemy Number One", against which its Middle East strategy is increasingly focused, according to one of the U.S.'s leading experts on the Gulf.

POLITICS: U.S., Iranian Publics Not So Different

The people of Iran and the United States share many of the same hopes and fears about global problems but remain deeply distrustful of each other's government, according to a major survey of public opinion in both countries released here Wednesday.

US/IRAN: Ahmadinejad Feels Economic Heat

The arrests by a U.S. military unit of six Iranians in Erbil, Iraq and several others in Baghdad earlier this month indicate the deployment of a new strategy against Iran's hardliner government.

POLITICS: Doomsday Clock Ticking Faster – in Asia

The Chicago-based ‘Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ (BAS) has moved the minute hand of the legendary Doomsday Clock forward by two minutes to show that the world is now only five minutes away from the ultimate catastrophe, or the end of civilisation, symbolically represented by the midnight hour.

JAPAN: Powering Ahead on Nuclear Technology

Rapidly growing energy needs in the world coupled with a warm winter season, attributed to global warming, have boosted Japan's nuclear power sector especially the export of nuclear technology to other countries, say experts here.

POLITICS: Bush’s New Iran Policy – No Evidence for IED Charge

For 18 months now, the George W. Bush administration has periodically raised the charge that Iran is supplying anti-coalition forces in Iraq with arms.

POLITICS: Bush’s New Iran Policy – War Plan or Propaganda?

President George W. Bush's seemingly aggressive Iran policy of taking direct action against alleged Iranian "networks" involved in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, combined with the deployment of a second carrier group off Iran's coast, triggered speculation that it is related to a plan for an attack.

POLITICS: Bush&#39s Iraq Plan – Goading Iran into War

President George W. Bush's address on Iraq Wednesday night was less about Iraq than about its eastern neighbour, Iran. There was little new about the U.S.'s strategy in Iraq, but on Iran, the president spelled out a plan that appears to be aimed at goading Iran into war with the U.S.

POLITICS-CHINA: Playing Honest Broker to Iran, Israel

Amid sensational reports that Israel might be prepared to use nuclear tactical strikes to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, China has been cast in the uncustomary role of Middle East conflicts negotiator over the last two weeks, hosting leaders from both nations.

POLITICS-IRAN: Ratcheting up the Nuclear Ante

The stunning story by the London ‘Sunday Times' alleging that Israel has drawn up plans to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities with nuclear weapons has focused attention on the growing global nuclear danger and on the worsening situation in the Middle East.

POLITICS-IRAN: Defiant but Weighing the Cost of UN Sanctions

While the world awaits a response to resolution 1737 passed by the U.N. Security Council, Iranian officials are defiantly calling for a review of Iran's subscription to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), if the country is ‘threatened'.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Nuclear Disarmament Gets Critical

If prospects for nuclear weapons reduction took a turn for the worse in 2006 the New Year holds out little hope for containing proliferation.

POLITICS: Five U.N. Powers Reach Compromise to Penalise Iran

Tensions between Iran and Western powers rose to new heights Saturday as the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic for its nuclear activities.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: A Bad Year for Empire

For those who believed that the precise and overwhelming demonstration of U.S. military power in Afghanistan and Iran would "shock and awe" the rest of the world - and particularly Washington's foes and aspiring rivals - into accepting its benevolent hegemony, 2006 was not a good year.

POLITICS: Blair’s Mideast Message Echoes Past Failure

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been touring the Middle East with one clear message - to make peace in the Middle East, Iran must be isolated.