An agreement to constrain Iran’s nuclear program is within reach but could still fail if President Obama succumbs to political pressure and refuses to grant Iran meaningful relief from sanctions, as Gareth Porter explains.
Tag: Gareth Porter
GOP Senators Take Orders from AIPAC
By reaching out to Iran in a bid to sabotage negotiations to limit its nuclear program, Sen. Tom Cotton and his 46 Republican colleagues not only show their contempt for President Obama and the U.S. Constitution but their obeisance to…
Behind Israel’s Hostility toward Iran
For a decade after Iran’s Islamic revolution, Israel quietly armed the regime which Prime Minister Netanyahu now condemns as an “existential threat.” What caused the shift? Part of the reason was and remains domestic Israeli politics and managing the U.S.…
The Obama-Netanyahu Showdown
President Obama has been reduced to asking Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for permission to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, recognizing Netanyahu’s power over the U.S. Congress. But Netanyahu’s determination to block any deal has left Obama traversing a difficult…
The One-Sided US Narrative on Iran
In the preferred U.S. narratives, American leaders are always wise and rational but must deal with pigheaded and crazy adversaries. That is the way the current U.S.-Iranian nuclear negotiations are presented inside Official Washington but there is a very different…
A Rush to Judgment in Argentine Bomb Case?
The mysterious death of an Argentine prosecutor has whipped up new suspicions around the case of who bombed the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) in 1994 and whether there was an official cover-up, but the evidence on both counts remains…
The Israel Lobby Shows Its Clout
House Speaker Boehner’s unprecedented invitation to give Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a platform of a joint session of Congress to undercut President Obama’s foreign policy is just the latest example of how much power the Israel lobby wields, as Gareth…
CIA Found No Magic in Operation Merlin
The espionage trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling has focused less on evidence that he leaked secrets about “Operation Merlin,” a CIA scheme to slip flawed nuclear designs to Iran, than on the merits of the unsuccessful covert op which…
Can Obama Untangle from Syria’s Civil War?
President Obama appears open to a UN strategy of negotiating local ceasefires in Syria as a step toward a political solution to that civil war, but he remains tangled in the demand from Israel, Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies…
Twisting the Iran-Nuke Intelligence
Since the Reagan administration broke the back of professionalism at the CIA’s analytical division, U.S. intelligence has regularly been twisted for geopolitical purposes, including the case made over Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, as Gareth Porter explains.