Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is on a bit of a US diplomacy tour as the talks over a nuclear deal enter what is presumably their home stretch. Ten days ago he wrote an editorial for The New York Times, in which he expressed Iran's desire for intra-regional dialogue on matters of security and diplomacy: … Continue reading How, and how not, to talk about important stuff

Maryam Rajavi's testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade went exactly as expected: Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian dissidents organization Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), a group that until 2012 was list on the State Department’s terror list, insisted Tehran was the root of the Islamic State’s power. In prepared testimony, … Continue reading According to the script

Josh Keating suggests another motivation behind today's big Saudi royal news, one I didn't consider in my rambling 1 AM diatribe on the subject: Still, this is change in a place where there is often none. In addition to injecting some young blood into the kingdom’s creaky gerontocracy, the moves were likely also made with … Continue reading An ancillary benefit

Speaking of the "Bomb Bomb Iran" Caucus, analyst Paul Pillar did a pretty thorough job yesterday of fisking one of their favorite anti-Iran talking points: the idea that the Iranian Leviathan is wrapping its tentacles all around the Middle East. An additional twist to this line of anti-agreement agitation is found in an opinion piece … Continue reading Running out of talking points

My newest piece at LobeLog looks at Republican efforts to kill the Corker-Menendez bill, the brainchild of their chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: What these proposed amendments all have in common is that, if they’re added to the Corker bill, the White House’s promise not to veto it becomes null and void. In … Continue reading Why Republicans are trying to kill their own Iran deal bill, at LobeLog

Maybe you've heard the saying "money talks, bullshit walks"? Well on Capitol Hill, money and bullshit are often the same thing, and they both get to talk as long as they want or until the cash runs out, whichever comes first. Take the People's Mujahedin, or Mujahedin-i Khalq (MEK), an Iranian exile group that I've … Continue reading Buying your way to respectability

I wanted to flag this piece in the Washington Post from a week and a half ago because I think it's always important to counter the notion that Islamic sectarianism is all you need to know to explain the current situation in the Middle East. It's written by Nick Danforth, a grad student at Georgetown, … Continue reading How sectarianism matters and how it doesn’t

It's always nice to see a good man or lady being rewarded for their commitment to public service by being reelected in a free and fair election, and today we're blessed to have two such occurrences to celebrate. Lucky us! First, in Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir was returned to office for another five year term … Continue reading Ah, democracy in action

The New York Times is our nation's Newspaper of Record, which is a fancy name for "most important newspaper." As such they're supposed to set a standard for how news is covered, and, to be perfectly honest with you, if their 2016 campaign coverage over the past couple of days is The Standard for what … Continue reading 2016 can’t come soon enough

This is sure to end the migrant emergency, and really, what could go wrong? Italy pressed the EU on Wednesday to devise robust steps to stop the deadly tide of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, including considering military intervention against smugglers and boosting U.N. refugee offices in countries bordering Libya. “We know where the smugglers keep … Continue reading Here’s a bright idea to solve Europe’s refugee crisis