We see a new impasse in negotiations about renewing the 2015 agreement that limits Iran’s nuclear program. Members of Congress are pressuring the Biden administration not to make any concessions. Many Democrats and Republicans in Congress want no deal. A group of fifty representatives from the…

On August 24 John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said an agreement with Iran about its nuclear program was closer than it had been in early August although there are still differences between the two sides. The Biden administration is being careful about its language…

The current political crisis in Baghdad appears to be the beginning of the end of the Iraqi political system created under the American umbrella of 2003-2011. I was the director of the American Embassy political affairs office most of the time between 2004 and 2009, and I acknowledge a sense of…

Israel will be a big factor in a primary election on August 2 where two Democratic Party nominees are competing to be the Democratic candidate next November against a Republican Party candidate to represent a Congressional district in Michigan. The national lobby that rejects criticism of…

Last week’s urgent negotiations in the Security Council should finally push the so-called Friends of Syria to prepare for the day soon when the United Nations organization can no longer supervise the delivery of humanitarian aid into rebel-controlled northwest Syria. On July 8, Russia in the…

Here in America, we are following the investigation by the American congress into the attack on the Capitol building in Washington on January 6, 2021 when an armed mob tried to block the certification of Joseph Biden’s election victory. After the first two weeks of hearings, the purpose of the…

More than ever before, the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria are coming together. The calculations in the Kremlin and in Turkey’s presidential palace are especially complicated now as the two capitals must consider three different angles. First, in a month the United Nations Security Council must vote…

The riskiest time in a low-level conflict is when the balance of power changes and new red lines must be determined. In Syria now, as Russia reduces its forces, Iranian Revolution Guard forces are increasing their presence and Israel perceives a gradually increasing Iranian threat from both its…

Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan has many critics in the United States, but his careful balance on Ukraine gives lessons on how diplomacy can change discomfort into political advantage. Erdogan has recaptured influence in the North Atlantic alliance despite its continued close economic…