Iran has strongly criticized the United States for making “baseless remarks” about the country’s electoral process and interfering in its domestic affairs.

After a few days of waiting, Iran's Interior Ministry has officially published the list of eight presidential candidates whose qualifications have been approved by the country’s election supervisory body, the Guardian Council.

The west is eagerly awaiting the results of the upcoming June presidential elections in Iran to determine whom they will be working with in Tehran for the foreseeable future. Certainly the nuclear issue will remain a high priority for world powers and Iran. Over a decade of negotiations with Tehran, world powers have challenged Iran’s legitimate rights for enrichment under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), yielding no outcome. The world powers have continued hitting the hammer on the same nail and it is time for a renewed look at the status quo.

The recent victory of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Party in the country’s National Assembly elections has led to a great deal of debates and speculations about possible future orientation of Pakistan’s domestic and foreign policies. 

It would be at least useful to know that although the current state of affairs in Iran's domestic political scene is determined by many unknown and possibly unexpected elements, one may also see the color of hope, dynamism, development and maturity, which should not be easily ignored. Attention to the combination of this color with everyday developments, and listening to moderate and fair analyses will make it possible to present a more real schema of Iran's political scene to outside observers.

The sudden fall of Bashar Assad’s government may take the country’s arsenal out of the central government’s control and into the hands of radical elements. For this reason, it is quite possible for Israel; if it feels that the downfall of Bashar Assad’s government is imminent, to attack important military facilities and equipment in Syria in order to totally annihilate them.

Since the ongoing crisis in Syria began, positions taken by the Turkish government on the Syria crisis have raised many questions and, of course, ambiguities among the analysts. The reason is that Ankara’s positions have been in contradiction to the trend which had started in Turkey’s relations with Syria, at least, 10 years before the beginning of Syria crisis.

Taking into account the United States approach to Syria crisis at domestic, regional and international levels, it would be only natural to conclude that the crisis in Syria has not fared the way that Washington expected and will not do so in future either. It is a crisis riddled with challenges which may get Washington involved in later unwanted disputes at regional and international levels.

When playing its role in the issue of Palestine, Qatar does not care for the cause of Palestine and is not trying to realize the goals and ideals of the Palestinian nation. Doha considers the issue of Palestine as an opportunity to promote its own regional role and heal the internal damages which it has suffered in competition with other regional powers; it is by no means trying to pursue the cause of Palestine.

Perhaps, it would be no exaggeration if one claimed that the biggest war which is currently raging in the Middle East region is a war between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Not a single day passes by without mass media releasing reports about bomb attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. At the same time, the ongoing civil war in Syria is taking more of an ethnic and religious turn as time goes by. So, would it be exaggeration to talk about the war between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq?