Iran

Geneva Talks on Iran: A New Beginning?

On October 18, 2013 the Atlantic Council held a members’ conference call entitled “Geneva Talks on Iran: A New Beginning?” with R. Nicholas Burns, professor of the practice of diplomacy and international politics at the Kennedy School. The call was moderated by Atlantic Council President and CEO Fred Kempe. Download the Transcript

Iran Nuclear Talks in Geneva Get Down to Details

By Barbara Slavin

From the European venue to the power point presentation in English, this week’s nuclear negotiations with Iran showed a new seriousness that bodes well for a future agreement, even if it does not guarantee one. Iranian officials from US-educated Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on down spoke in English, dispensing with time-consuming translations, and outlined […]

Iran Nuclear Talks Return to Geneva with Better Prospects

By Barbara Slavin

There’s an element of déjà vu about next week’s planned talks in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program.   Four years ago, the United States and Iran reached a tentative agreement on a confidence building measure that would have sent out most of Iran’s stockpile of lightly enriched uranium in return for fuel for a reactor […]

Turkey’s Spymaster Plots Own Course on Syria

By Adam Entous and Joe Parkinson, Wall Street Journal

“Hakan Fidan [Turkey’s powerful spymaster] is the face of the new Middle East,” says James Jeffrey, who recently served as U.S. ambassador in Turkey and Iraq.

MENASource Discussions: Gulf Security and the US-Gulf Relationship

By MENASource

Ambassador Richard LeBaron, senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, recently held an online conversation with Dr. Greg Gause, professor of political science at the University of Vermont and nonresident fellow with the Brookings Doha Center.

Iranian Cyber Warfare Commander Shot Dead in Suspected Assassination

By Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat, Telegraph

Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead in a wooded area near the town of Karaj, north-west of the capital, Tehran.

Iranian Cyber Warfare Commander Shot Dead in Suspected Assassination

By Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat, Telegraph

Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead in a wooded area near the town of Karaj, north-west of the capital, Tehran.

Iran: Speak Softly BUT…Mr President

By Julian Lindley-French

On 26 January, 1900 US President Theodore Roosevelt sent a letter to Henry L. Sprague of the Union Club of New York in which he wrote, “Speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far.” The US press seized on the phrase and a new foreign policy doctrine was born – ‘Big […]

An Opportunity for Breakthrough Diplomacy

By R. Nicholas Burns

Something important, rare, and very positive happened in the Middle East this week: Iran and the United States agreed to negotiate for the first time in three decades. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama signaled in back-to-back UN speeches that they are ready for diplomacy. This doesn’t mean they will succeed or even make […]