Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose hypothetical "political comeback" has been one of the more interesting stories in the run up to next year's Iranian presidential election, had a whole lot of cold water dumped on his plans today: Ayatollah Khamenei made the statement about Mr. Ahmadinejad during a lecture for seminary students at his office. He was … Continue reading Who’s left to run against Rouhani?

Many people are wondering what time the debate is tonight. In fact, people regularly come up to me and say, "Derek, you're obviously very intelligent, so intelligent, and handsome! Can you tell us what time the debate is tonight, because the losers in the mainstream media"--and they're just the worst, aren't they? vile, wretched human … Continue reading DEBATE 2016: Time, channels, and more

I know it's Friday night so I'm shouting into the void, but I spent last week and much of this week covering the aborted--well, that's not totally fair; "aborted" suggests that it had a shot of actually coming to fruition at some point--ceasefire in Syria, and now that it's all over but the literal shouting … Continue reading A bad end to a bad week

India and Pakistan in December: India’s prime minister made a surprise stop Friday in Pakistan to meet his counterpart in a richly symbolic gesture likely to add momentum to a tentative reconciliation process between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif embraced India’s Narendra Modi at the airport in the eastern city of Lahore. They … Continue reading That’s not going to go over well

Today in New York, a thin-skinned, narcissistic autocrat with dangerously violent tendencies tried to burnish his dubious foreign policy credentials by meeting with a high-profile foreign political leader. Oh, and Donald Trump was there too: Egypt's president has been told the US would be a "loyal friend" to Egypt if Donald Trump is elected president, … Continue reading Like looking in a mirror

There's a strong possibility that the Syrian ceasefire, which would have passed the magic one week trial period as of tomorrow, is now defunct. At least it's defunct according to the Syrian military, which resumed barrel bombing Aleppo yesterday and outright said the ceasefire is over today. But as this was a US-Russia agreement negotiated … Continue reading Fun while it lasted?

Russia and the U.S. have formally extended everybody else's ceasefire in Syria for another 48 hours, but all is already not well if you're a fan of Middle East peace: The United Nations has urged Syria's government to "immediately" allow humanitarian aid into the country, after a fragile ceasefire was extended for 48 hours by … Continue reading Still no aid to eastern Aleppo