Obama’s Stealth Sanctions Against Russia Are a Dirty Trick
These are fast times for Ukraine. The crisis over its future between East and West suddenly has more momentum and more chance of resolution than it has in many months. But it is newly fragile, too. A false move now…
The Sanctions Against Russia Are a Dangerous Game
Crunch time in Ukraine approaches. This is not simply because the country’s east and south are “essentially at war,” as Vasyl Krutov, the general who leads what the provisional government in Kiev insists is its “anti-terror” operation,acknowledged on Sunday. The…
Are Things Actually Looking Up in the Middle East?
It is only a faint outline—call it a pencil sketch—but the lines of a significantly remade Middle East are suddenly falling into place. We have to wait for the region’s leaders and the diplomats asserting the influence of interested outsiders…
Sanctions Will Turn Iran into Another Cuba
The U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Iran earlier this year seem to be working with a vengeance. As if by remote control, the West has thousands of Iranians taking to the streets while the nation’s political elites are splitting…
Why Obama’s Iran Strategy is All Wrong
The good news: We now have a new set of talks on Iran’s nuclear program scheduled for mid April in Istanbul. The bad news: Washington and its allies have not prepared the ground for these talks. We are a negotiating…
Unthinkable: Conflict between Israel and Iran
The guessing game as to whether sanctions imposed last month against Iran for its nuclear program will work is over. They are already working. This past week the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, struck a notably conciliatory tone as…
Sanctions: Will Iran Redouble Its Nuclear Efforts?
Iranian oil, American diplomacy, and Asian economic power combined last week to yield a highly unstable, potentially combustible cocktail. The American economy and the financial markets have much to be thankful for so far in 2012, particularly as we look…
Iran Sanctions: Another Cuban Missile Crisis?
And two more hotspots: Iraq and Egypt Is 2012 destined to be a year of Middle East challenges—not to say calamities—for the Obama administration? It has certainly started out ominously. The White House already has three fires to put out…
Recent Comments