In his message to the Iranian people on the occasion of the Persian New Year, US President Barack Obama said he wanted to “take this opportunity to speak directly to the people and leaders of Iran.”

A thorough evaluation of the result of the technical talks in Istanbul can provide relative assessment of the ability of Obama administration to overcome structural restrictions which are barring him from entering into a new trend which may lead to the resolution of Iran's nuclear issue. Ultimately, it would be possible to answer this crucial question: Is the United States merely trying to keep the door of diplomacy open to Tehran, or is it actually trying to find a solution for Iran's nuclear standoff.

The final phase of the Iran – Pakistan gas pipeline project, which is to be built on the Pakistani soil, was launched in a ceremony attended by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, on Monday, March 11, 2013.

After the conclusion of the latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers in the Kazakh city of Almaty, a change of positions on Iran can be seen in most official and unofficial political circles of the West. Some analysts believe that the modification of the West’s positions on Iran is a result of Obama’s new assessment of the Middle East and the regional standings of Iran and Israel.

Kerry’s diplomatic visits to nine countries in a matter of 11 days clearly proved that like his predecessor, the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Kerry is also trying to present old ideas in new casts. This proves that the foreign policy of the Obama administration during his second term in office is more willing to somehow deal with the existing issues instead of presenting an accurate, clear-cut and new outlook for the future.

They expected Iran to change, but in practice, it was the United States which changed. I believe that an important mental shift has occurred in the minds of the US statesmen about the definition of a nuclear Iran. As a result of that change, the definition of the red line which should not be crossed by Iran, and the definition of “Iran's nuclear energy program” in a way that the United States would be able to accept it in a face-saving manner, have also changed.

The foreign relations of both Iran and the United States during the contemporary times can be studied and considered from various viewpoints. While Iran had become a strategic ally of the United States under the Pahlavi regime, especially during the last two decades of that regime, the Islamic Revolution of 1979 followed by the severance of diplomatic relations between the two countries turned two strategic allies into two strategic enemies. 

As was expected, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscar) finally gave Ben Affleck his reward by granting him an Oscar for the Best Motion Picture of the Year. Now, the question which has preoccupied the minds of film buffs and enthusiasts since that event is “Did Ben Affleck’s new film, Argo, actually deserve this honor when compared to such masterpieces of cinematic art as "Life of Pi, Lincoln, Amour, and…?” Or have other issues been playing a part in determining which film would win the best prize? 

In reality, Iran's nuclear dossier is neither a legal case, nor a technical one. It is, in fact, a politicized case in which the hope for an agreement will be high if the general course of the case and the general direction of the policy adopted by the United States and its European allies toward Iran is changed from confrontation to interaction. The negotiations in Almaty have been just a beginning for such a course and both sides have indicated their readiness to make that change.

The question is why Hazara people and why Shias have become the target of the extremist currents in Quetta? To find the answer to this question, the analyst, without any kind of prejudgment, should study the structure of local power in Quetta and also study the local ethnic groups and their viewpoints, opinions, interests and the conflict of interests in that part of Pakistan.