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Behind-the-scenes help of the Taliban includes training, medical treatment and bribes
Iran is engaged in an extensive covert campaign to arm, finance, train and equip Taliban insurgents, Afghan warlords allied to al-Qaida and suicide bombers fighting t…
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Missing Iranian scientist’s reappearance in the US looks set to fuel propaganda war between Tehran and the west
Iran is gearing up to tell its version of the story of Shahram Amiri, the missing nuclear scientist whose sudden appearance at the Pakistani…
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Decision by security council’s big five to pursue sanctions on Iran was a clear signal that they were not impressed
The agreement by the UN security council’s dominant five powers to pursue sanctions against Iran yesterday came as a surprisingly fast riposte to Iran’s last-ditch diplomatic efforts to fend off punitive measures, and suggests Tehran may have overplayed its hand.
A day earlier, Iranian, Turkish and Brazilian leaders met in Tehran to declare that sanctions had been made irrelevant by their joint diplomatic breakthrough. Iran would embrace a deal agreed in principle with major powers last October, but subsequentlywhich it had walked away from, involving the transfer of some of…
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Poor state of US-Chinese relations hinders Barack Obama’s push for sanctions over Tehran’s uranium production
The US was today spearheading a diplomatic campaign to overcome Chinese opposition to further sanctions aimed at Iran and its Revolutionary Guards in a renewed push following Tehran’s decision to produce uranium almost six times more enriched than its existing stockpile.
Barack Obama said yesterday that his administration was “developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them [Iran] how isolated they are from the international community as a whole”.
Those sanctions will target a wide range of business interests belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which…
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Israel has been pushing for tougher sanctions against Iran and would welcome a hardening of US policy
Israel’s government has long tried to raise international concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and is likely to welcome the new US deployments in the Gulf if it signals a hardening of policy.
Israel, itself a major but undeclared nuclear power, has been pushing for tougher sanctions against Iran and is wary of those who argue in favour of dialogue and negotiations.
On Saturday the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, held a rare meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Davos, Switzerland, and asked him to work “in a serious and steadfast manner against Iran’s nuclear…
