POLITICS: Pentagon Meet Discussed Escalating Pressure on Iran

Two weeks ago, Pentagon officials discussed a strategy to escalate U.S. pressure on Iran with the intention of creating the impression that the U.S. is ready to go to war, according to an account by one of the participants.

POLITICS-US/IRAQ: Ready to Talk With Iran, Syria

Two weeks after making major concessions for a nuclear accord with North Korea, the administration of President George W. Bush said Tuesday it was prepared to sit down with Iran and Syria as part of a regional conference to stabilise Iraq.

POLITICS: Will Surge Hurt US More Than Sanctions Hurt Iran?

The winds of fortune in the Iranian nuclear stand-off seem to have shifted, judging by the U.S.'s new confidence. But in Washington's apparent quest to get an upper hand, misreading the causes of the backlash against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran may cause the U.S. to lose rather than gain leverage.

IRAN: Defiant as Sanctions Begin to Bite

While President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has chosen to defy Western plans to deepen sanctions against his country for its hugely contentious nuclear programme, criticism is growing louder at home for exposing Iran to avoidable risks and hardship.

EGYPT: Iran-Bashing Fails to Get Far

A news report in the state press late last month suggesting Iranian involvement in the 2005 death of an Egyptian ambassador to Iraq triggered a series of contradictory statements from the foreign ministry. Now that the dust has settled, many local observers see the incident as a heavy-handed attempt by Cairo - following Washington's lead - to jump on the anti-Tehran bandwagon.

MIDDLE EAST: Shia-Sunni Violence Spreads in Iran

A week after alleged Sunni militants blew up a vehicle transporting members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), killing 11 and injuring 18, sectarian tension is reported prevailing in the predominantly Sunni southeast that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.

POLITICS-US: Rove Said to Have Received 2003 Iranian Proposal

Karl Rove, then White House senior political advisor for President George W. Bush, received a copy of the secret Iranian proposal for negotiations with the United States from former Republican Congressman Bob Ney in early May 2003, according to an Iranian-American scholar who was then on his Congressional staff.

POLITICS: U.S. Religious Leaders to Visit Iran

Amid rising tensions between their two countries, a group of U.S. religious leaders will leave Saturday for meetings with Iranian clergy and political leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Tehran next week.

IRAN: Field Day for Militarists as Standoff with U.S. Continues

Whether or not the military posturing by the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman actually results in armed hostilities, militarists in this country are having a field day.

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.

MEDIA-IRAN: Self-Imposed Sanctions

Iran's nuclear programme, an undeniably serious issue for Iranians and the rest of the world, has overshadowed the country's deplorable human rights situation, including severe censorship of books and publications.

POLITICS: Iran Poses Multiple Problems for Arab Nations

As Iran vies with the United States for dominance in the Middle East, the smaller Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are left with several anxieties - the consequences of a U.S./Israeli military attack on Iran; the rising stock of a Shiite country that has long posed a religio-ideological threat; and sectarian strife in Sunni-ruled countries with significant Shiite communities.

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.

MEDIA: Journalists Targeted for Traveling Outside Iran

In a new blow to free expression in Iran, security forces arrested three members of a 15-woman delegation of journalists en route to a training workshop in India last week, accusing them of infringing national security interests and threatening them with trial.

ECONOMY-IRAN: Shia-Sunni Split – Factor in Annual Budget

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has submitted to Iranian parliament a budget bill for the fiscal year starting Mar. 21 that factors in the possibility of falling oil prices to "neutralise the plots of the enemies" of Iran, already under United Nations sanctions.

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.

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-IRAN: Refusing to Be Provoked by the US

Iran has masterfully refused to be provoked by the United States military action of arresting six of its diplomatic staff during a raid on an Iranian liaison office in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, last week.

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-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.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Bloggers Rebel at New Censorship

In a bid to clamp down even harder on information disseminated through the Internet, Iran's hardliner government has demanded the registration of all websites and weblogs sourced in the country by Mar. 1, drawing objections from many Iranian bloggers who say the move clearly violates free speech.