The battle has raged for years and the former economic hub of Syria has been turned to rubble. After all this time and all this death, the fighting seems to have slogged to a bloody, but decisive end. The Syrian Army, backed by Russian troops and irregular...

IS burst into the thinking of people around the world when it seized significant parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014. The rapid progress of the group caught many observers by surprise and was seen as a sign of the spread of the turbulence generated by the...

Iranian elections appear to have returned a significant victory for the reformist faction of the Iranian government. In the first election since Iran was accepted back into the global community with the implementation of the nuclear deal with the US and...

Peace talks aimed at ending the civil war in Syria were suspended today after it became clear that the sides were unable to get the talks off the ground. Incompatible demands and an uptick in fighting make the peace talks untenable at the present time...

When Iran was declared to have complied with the terms for an end to international sanctions, this triggered the lifting of wide-ranging limits on international trade and investment. Multinational corporations were lined up to enter the Iranian market...

It is often said that revolutions tend to eat their young. Starting with great hope and promise, revolutions can devolve into chaos and violence once groups move past removing an old regime to the problems of building a new one. Five years since the start...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came under criticism by politicians in the United States and a number of independent experts on nuclear security in the past week as it has emerged that the IAEA did not actually inspect a key Iranian nuclear...

On 7 August, President Obama said , “Yezidi women, men and children from the area of Sinjar have fled for their lives. And thousands -- perhaps tens of thousands -- are now hiding high up on the mountain, with little but the clothes on their backs...

Last week one Iraqi cried to the world, “there is no one coming to help.” “Well,” said President Obama, “today America is coming to help.” Above: President Obama meets with his national security team in the Situation...

For more than ten years the United States has worked to rebuild and stabilize the state of Iraq. In Iraq the US took down a ruthless military regime, rebuilt Iraq’s military, paved roads, built schools, and worked to create an inclusive and stable...

Above: an Iranian man walks past a currency exchange shop in Tehran. The Iranian rial has fallen to a record low against the dollar after US President Barack Obama signed a bill imposing sanctions against the country's central bank (photo: Morteza...

China is Iran's biggest oil customer. China imports over half a million barrels of Iranian crude each day to feed its hungry economy. The United States is applying diplomatic pressure on Beijing this month in an attempt to persuade China to...

What is your impression of the state of Iran? If you saw the movie Argo you might think of it as an angry police state with lots of hatred for Americans and the United States. If one listens to the popular media accounts of the rhetoric coming...

The leaders of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan met to discuss a range of regional peace efforts [Photo: Reuters]. As regular readers of this blog know, Iran is facing growing economic difficulties due to its international isolation. The United States...

Iranian and US diplomats held face-to-face meetings last night discussing proposals to end decades of diplomatic deadlock. Until September 2013, a direct conversation between leaders in Washington and Tehran had not occurred since 1979. It was...

American cultural anthropologist, Margaret Mead said, "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Could a small thoughtful Facebook group change relations between nations? ...

On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel has no roots in the Middle East and would be "eliminated" ( click here for more ). The quest for nuclear arms continues to create serious international tensions. The nations...

The Iranian leadership maintains that its nuclear development program is for peaceful purposes - not weapons. Last November, the Iranians reached out to Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany in an attempt to conclude a...

Photo showing the front of the Iranian 100,000 Rials bank note (Reuters file photo). On New Year's Eve (2011) U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law even tighter sanctions on Iran. These new sanctions do not allow financial institutions...

Will Israel unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months? Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Neither sanctions nor diplomacy have yet had any impact on Iran's nuclear weapons program...

In the course of a wide-ranging discussion in the last of three presidential debates President Obama appeared to be open to a negotiated settlement over Iran's nuclear program ( click here for more ). Above: Republican presidential nominee...

The leaders of Iran greeted 2012 with a test missile launch. In the coming decades, world leaders must address and handle three very critical policy questions: 1) whether they should develop and maintain nuclear weapons, 2) whether they should use...

Above: Screen grab from video of Mr. Amir Mirzaei Hekmati as seen on Iranian TV. At the very foundation of international law one finds the principle of state sovereignty. Since the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), states have held fast to the right to...

According to a CNN report , "the U.S. Navy had secret orders this week to be "prepared to act" to stop a cargo ship carrying Iranian arms destined for Gaza." U.S. officials began secretly tracking a shipment of weapons as...

Iranians woke Tuesday to the disappointment of finding that they no longer had access to Facebook. Overnight their government had blocked access to the social media site ( click here for more ). Why would the Iranian government officials care...