New US Envoy George Mitchell will be arriving in the Middle East by Wednesday, but Israeli President Shimon Peres sees no reason for the Israeli government to be concerned. “These are mere overtures by the new US administration in order to learn more about the situation,” Peres insisted, saying that Mitchell would not be pressuring [...]
Notwithstanding a handful of incidents, the truce in the Gaza Strip appears to be holding, and while the Israeli government and Hamas still aren’t talking to one another, the Cairo talks continue, aiming to work out a longer-term ceasefire between the two sides. Among the details yet to be worked out is the length of [...]
As the Obama Administration looks to escalate the war in Afghanistan by doubling the number of American forces on the ground, Vice President Joe Biden concedes that Americans should expect a higher death toll this year than in years past. “I hate to say it, but yes, I think there will be. There will be [...]
Answering questions about US policy with respect to its ongoing attacks in Pakistan, Vice President Joe Biden pointed reporters to President Obama’s comments during the campaign that “if there is an actionable target, of a high-level Al-Qaeda personnel, that he would not hesitate to use action to deal with that.” As far as last week’s [...]
“This is not an appeal by Hamas asking for arms.” But don’t tell that to the BBC, who declined to broadcast a plea for aid to the Gaza Strip by an organization comprised of the British Red Cross, Oxfam, and several other high profile charities. They said they feared allowing charities to ask for civilian [...]
Thousands of Afghan villagers across Laghman Province rallied to protest against the latest incident of US troops killing innocent civilians. Protesters condemned both the US forces and President Hamid Karzai’s government, demanding that troops end a military operation that killed around 1,100 civilians in 2008 alone. The latest incident started, as so many do, with [...]
As new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks to put her own signature on America’s foreign policy moving forward, it is starting to become clear what her promise of “smart power” means: supplementing the Bush-era legacy of bellicose interventionism with an added dose of taxpayer dollars for foreign aid. “I believe in development and I [...]
Israel’s 22-day war in the Gaza Strip may have saved the Labor Party of Defense Minister Ehud Barak from the indignity of falling to single-digit representation in the Knesset in next month’s elections, but recent polls suggest it has also assured that the next coalition government will have no need of Labor as a partner. [...]
The Iraqi government is quite satisfied that President Barack Obama will not make any dramatic moves to withdraw troops in 2009, in spite of his campaign promise to have all American troops out of the nation within 16 months of taking office. “We are sure that the policy of President Obama would be one of [...]
With Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant scheduled to begin operation sometime this year, the nation’s ongoing enrichment program is running low on its supplies of raw uranium, which the gas-graphite reactor requires to be enriched to low levels to use. The Times is reporting that Iran is scrambling to import more raw uranium, and diplomats [...]
