If working out a diplomatic solution to the problem related to Iran nuclear energy program is actually possible – which Iran thinks is – then what features should characterize that solution? Are there any components the absence of which would cause any new proposal to fail in advance?

Negotiations on the bilateral security and military agreement between the governments of the United States and Afghanistan were carried out under almost unequal conditions. Informed sources have noted that the agreement is supposed to set a framework for the presence of the US military forces in Afghanistan well beyond 2014, when Afghan forces are supposed to take charge of the security affairs in Afghanistan after the foreign troops leave the war-stricken country.

The United States of America, which has been incessantly trying to contain Russia throughout the past two decades through both cooperation and confrontation, is now faced with an open game in which all cards have been already played once. As a result, it would not be an easy task to come up with a new plan for relations between the United States and Russia and find a lingua franca for Putin and Obama.

The most important question, which has preoccupied the international public opinion in the few days that have passed since the beginning of the bloody war in Gaza is whether this is just a normal state of affairs and a sequel to all other wars, which have been already fought by Palestinians and the Israelis over the past 60 years, or it has been started on the basis of a predetermined plan and tactic by one of the two parties to the conflict?

Qatar is a small littoral state in the Persian Gulf which is doing it utmost to play big roles in the entire Middle East region and pose itself as an important regional player at the same level with such countries as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran. Therefore, it has tried to be of consequence in major regional crises and disputes. The issue of Palestine and the Palestinian-Israel dispute, as the most important and lasting of the Middle East crises, is one of the main areas in which Qatar has been trying hard to play a role in order to promote its regional standing.

The US presidential election ended on November 6 and the incumbent President Barack Obama won another four years in office as the president of the United States. Without a doubt, speculations by political experts are now rife as to the possible foreign policy approaches that Obama will adopt during his second term. Here, I, as an Iranian, want to make three wishes for the next four years of the United States’ and its president, Obama.

Tel Aviv is the first important point in the United States foreign policy where political observers try to assess the consequences of the recent US presidential election which was held on November 6, 2012. The high-ranking officials of Israel are wondering what approach will Obama take as the dominant approach of the United States’ foreign policy during his second term in office as president: will he choose for diplomacy and interaction, or give priority to confrontation and pressure?

The recent attack on a weapons production plant in Ash Shajara area of Sudan’s capital city, Khartoum, on October 24, can have many reasons. However, irrespective of those reasons, this attack cannot be analyzed separate from the large-scale and main strategy of the United States and Israel in the Middle East and North Africa. This means that the aforesaid operation has been certainly part of the big puzzle of the United States’ and Israel’s strategy in these regions. 

Violation of Muslims rights in Myanmar has aroused the sentiments of the Muslim community world over especially since June 2012. News, statistics and images depicting the extreme violence which is going on against the Muslim minority of the Southeast Asian nation have drawn the attention of part of the Muslim society to problems and plight of this remote and mostly forgotten Muslim minority. The present article will try to point out some considerations on the mass killing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar by discussing a number of separate propositions.

The Persian Gulf Sheikdom, Kuwait, has been the scene of unprecedented political tensions in October 2012. Protesters numbering between 30,000-100,000 according to independent and opposition sources accepted the opposition’s call by taking to the streets on October 21. They also clashed with Kuwaiti riot police. The clashes left about 100 protesters wounded in addition to about 10 police while a number of prominent opposition figures and their supporters were also arrested. The question is “what has been the content of the country’s reforms which infuriated the opposition and why Kuwaiti Emir so adamantly insists on their implementation?”