POLITICS-US: Neo-Cons Denounce Khatami Visit as “Appeasement”

Next week's visit to the United States of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has been strongly denounced by hard-line neo-conservatives and other hawks here as "appeasement".

POLITICS: Doubts Grow Over Bush’s Syria Policy

A growing debate within Israel over whether United States President George W. Bush's Middle East policies really serve the interests of the Jewish state has spread to Washington, where influential voices within the U.S. Jewish community are questioning the administration's hard-line positions in the region.

POLITICS-US: Republican Report Hypes Iran Threat

In what some critics describe as a replay of the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives has released a report suggesting Iran may acquire nuclear weapons much more quickly than U.S. intelligence agencies believe.

POLITICS-US: Hard-line Neo-Cons Assail Israel for Timidity

While much of the world has criticised Israel for carrying out a "disproportionate" war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, hard-line neo-conservatives have attacked the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for timidity.

MIDEAST: Veteran Policy-Makers Fear Disaster in U.S. Course

Alarms are definitely on the rise here.

POLITICS-US: Neo-Conservatives’ “Favourite Democrat” Falls

Tuesday's defeat in Connecticut's primary election of President George W. Bush's "favourite Democrat", Sen. Joe Lieberman, by a little-known anti-war candidate marks a major setback to neo-conservative hopes of maintaining bipartisan support for the administration's aggressive foreign policies, particularly in the Middle East.

POLITICS-US: Immigration Debate Splinters Conservatives

Leading conservatives recently sent an open letter to U.S. President George W. Bush and congressional leaders stating that "enforcement first" measures should be central to any immigration policy reform.

MIDEAST: Sunni-Shia Split Fades as Israel Presses Campaign

Hopes by the George W. Bush administration for the emergence of an implicit Sunni-Israel alliance against an Iranian-led "Shia Crescent" have faded over the past week as Arab public opinion has become increasingly united by outrage over the Jewish state's continuing military campaign in Lebanon and Washington's refusal to stop it, according to Middle East experts here.

POLITICS: Damascus Now Seen As Pivotal in Mideast Crisis

Mocked just months ago as a fool and a lightweight compared to his legendarily shrewd father, Syrian President Bashar Assad appears increasingly to have become the "go-to guy" in resolving the two-week-old war between Hezbollah and Israel.

POLITICS-US: Bringing On “World War III”

If you thought that a global conflagration on the order of a World War was more the stuff of Biblical prophecy, science fiction and apocalyptic end-times novels, think again.

POLITICS-US: Mideast Conflict Boosts Chances of Iran-US Showdown

The week-old Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is likely to boost the chances of U.S. military action against Iran, according to a number of regional experts who see a broad consensus among the U.S. political elite that the ongoing hostilities are part of a broader offensive being waged by Tehran against Washington across the region.

POLITICS: Energised Neo-Cons Say Israel’s Fight Is Washington’s

Seeing a major opportunity to regain influence lost as a result of setbacks in Iraq, prominent neo-conservatives are calling for unconditional U.S. support for Israel's military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon and "regime change" in Syria and Iran, as well as possible U.S. attacks on Tehran's nuclear facilities in retaliation for its support of Hezbollah.

/REPEAT/POLITICS-US: Cowboy Diplomacy Is Not Dead Yet

"We don't negotiate with evil; we defeat it."

MIDEAST: Israel Readies for Iran Showdown by Attacking Lebanon

As the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah persists, an Israeli strategy of enlarging the conflict seems to be crystallising.

POLITICS-US: “New American Century” Project Ends with a Whimper

Is the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which did so much to promote the invasion of Iraq and an Israel-centred "global war on terror", closing down?

U.S./IRAN: Conditional Offer for Talks Seen as a Gamble

Wednesday's unprecedented offer by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to join multilateral negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme was hailed as a positive step by Iran specialists here, who warned, however, that its conditional nature could prove problematic.

POLITICS-US: Pressure Grows on Bush to Engage Iran Directly

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is under increasing pressure - both here and abroad - to engage Iran in direct talks despite the continued opposition of pro-Israel neo-conservatives and Vice President Dick Cheney.

POLITICS-US: Right-Wing Israel Lobby Seizes on Olmert Visit

On his maiden visit to the United States as Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert received a first-hand look at the political muscle of the right-wing "Israel Lobby", part of which used the occasion to launch a campaign to deter him from following through on plans to unilaterally evacuate tens of thousands of settlers living in the occupied West Bank.

POLITICS-US: Bush Democracy Doctrine, 2003(?)-2006, R.I.P.

Less than 18 months after U.S. President George W. Bush declared in his 2005 Inaugural Address his unequivocal commitment to the "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world", tyrants, particularly in the Islamic world, are taking heart.

POLITICS: Iran Target of Apparent Disinformation Ploy

A story authored by a prominent U.S. neo-conservative regarding new legislation in Iran allegedly requiring Jews and other religious minorities to wear distinctive colour badges circulated around the world this weekend before it was exposed as false.

POLITICS: Iran Nuclear Conflict Is About U.S. Dominance

As the George W. Bush administration pushes for a showdown over Iran's nuclear programme in the U.N. Security Council, it has presented the issue as a matter of global security - an Iranian nuclear threat in defiance of the international community.