Posted in European Union, Iran, Raymond Tanter, Sanctions on Jul 15th, 2009 Comments Off on Isolate Iran’s regime
From Raymond Tanter President Obama continues to seek direct talks with Tehran in face of its suppression of Iranian oppositionists. But now is not the time to engage Tehran, given its violent suppression of the Iranian people and the American troop pullback from Iraqi cities. If President Obama extends a warm hand toward the clerical-military […]
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Posted in Iran, Robert O. Freedman, Russia on Jul 9th, 2009 Comments Off on Obama in Russia: meager on Mideast
From Robert O. Freedman On the two major Middle East issues that divide Russia and the United States and that could have been talked about at the U.S.-Russian summit—Moscow’s legitimization of Hamas by regularly inviting its delegations to Moscow, and Russia’s protection of Iran from serious UN Security Council sanctions—not much appears to have been […]
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Posted in Books, Iran, Military on Jul 7th, 2009 Comments Off on ‘Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces’
MESH invites selected authors to offer original first-person statements on their new books—why and how they wrote them, and what impact they hope and expect to achieve. Steven R. Ward is a senior CIA intelligence analyst who specializes in Iran and the Middle East. He is also a graduate of West Point and a retired […]
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From Michael Rubin The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and Washington Post have dubbed it a “Twitter Revolution,” speculating about whether new technology will enable Iranian protesters to overcome government forces. The role of technology in the current unrest is well-covered elsewhere. What is lacking in much of the coverage, however, is a sense of […]
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Posted in Iran, Maps on Jun 18th, 2009 Comments Off on Iran’s elections mapped
From MESH Admin These two maps depict official Iranian presidential election results by province with varying degrees of detail. The map on the left has been produced by Critical Threats, a project of the American Enterprise Institute. The map on the right has been prepared by the Guardian Datablog. Click on the thumbnail of each […]
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Posted in Daniel Byman, Democracy, Hillel Fradkin, Iran, J. Scott Carpenter, Josef Joffe, Mark N. Katz, Martin Kramer, Michael Mandelbaum, Philip Carl Salzman, Raymond Tanter, Walter Laqueur on Jun 17th, 2009 Comments Off on Iranian turmoil, U.S. options
Iran’s June 12 presidential elections have precipitated Iran’s greatest domestic political crisis since the 1979 revolution. The following MESH members responded to an invitation to comment on ramifications of the turmoil, with special reference to U.S. policy options: Daniel Byman, J. Scott Carpenter, Hillel Fradkin, Josef Joffe, Mark N. Katz, Martin Kramer, Walter Laqueur, Michael […]
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Posted in Gal Luft, Geopolitics, India, Iran, Oil and Gas, Pakistan on May 29th, 2009 Comments Off on Iran-Pakistan pipeline: Iran’s new lifeline
From Gal Luft While the world’s eyes are focused on Iran and Pakistan, little attention has been paid to the two countries’ decision from last week to move ahead with their plans to connect their economies via a natural gas pipeline. What may seem like a standard energy project could have profound implications for the […]
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