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Colin Kahl opposed sanctions on IRGC, condemned killing of Iranian terror chief Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee are meeting privately on Tuesday morning to discuss their growing policy concerns about Colin Kahl, President Joe Biden's nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon, according to sources close to the committee. Kahl, a former Obama State Department official, was a key architect of the Iran deal and has been at the forefront of a number of controversial moves, including, reportedly, the decision to remove a statement affirming Jerusalem as Israel's capital from the 2012 Democratic National Convention...

Joe Biden has become the 46th president of the United States. He will face many challenges on the global stage. The Middle East, for one, can be counted on to provide multiple crises and opportunities for America. Below, we examine the most significant of them. In the past six months four Arab-Muslim majority states normalized relations with the Jewish state. They proceeded to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel; they include Bahrain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sudan, and Morocco. The question now is whether the Biden administration will continue this trend, and extend peace between Israel and additional...

Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen has released the following statement: “We understand that Pakistani authorities are taking steps to ensure that Omar Sheikh remains in custody while the Supreme Court appeal seeking to reinstate his conviction continues. The separate judicial rulings reversing his conviction and ordering his release are an affront to terrorism victims everywhere. We remain grateful for the Pakistani government’s actions to appeal such rulings to ensure that he and his co-defendants are held accountable. If, however, those efforts do not succeed, the United States stands ready to take custody of Omar Sheikh to stand trial here....

WASHINGTON - The United States has filed a complaint to forfeit $2,372,793 associated with four companies, announced the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael R. Sherwin, Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Chicago Field Office, and Steven Cagen, Special Agent in Charge of the HSI Denver Field Office.            The complaint alleges that the four companies laundered United States dollars on behalf of sanctioned North Korean banks.  According to the complaint, the North Korean banks used these laundered funds as part of a scheme to procure goods for...

“Trust in Trump’s America is gone.” The coronavirus crisis has caused a dramatic deterioration in the European public perception of the US and left many believing the EU had become “irrelevant”, new polling finds. The new survey by the European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR) says the pandemic has traumatized Europeans and left them “feeling alone and vulnerable”. The survey studied the views of Europeans towards the EU and notably its response to the coronavirus crisis and the results did not make for positive reading. “There is a powerful sense among citizens of almost all surveyed member states that their...

Jun. 18, 2020 - 5:09 - Fox News contributor John Solomon says Dr. Walid Phares was the fifth person targeted in the Mueller probe in an attempt to sideline President Trump's foreign policy agenda. He also discusses former National Security Adviser John Bolton's controversial new book.

On March 15, 1995, by Executive Order 12957, the President declared a national emergency with respect to Iran to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of the Government of Iran.  On May 6, 1995, the President issued Executive Order 12959, imposing more comprehensive sanctions on Iran to further respond to this threat.  On August 19, 1997, the President issued Executive Order 13059, consolidating and clarifying those previous orders.  The President took additional steps pursuant to this national emergency in Executive Order 13553...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among the targets of an investigation in Turkey into suspected bribery and money laundering in connection with a scheme to help Iran evade sanctions, a former Istanbul police officer has testified. The officer, Huseyin Korkmaz, told a New York court on December 11 that the Turkish investigation that he led in 2012-2013 initially focused on Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, who U.S. prosecutors have said was the mastermind behind the Iran sanctions evasion scheme, but later grew to include dozens of others. He called Erdogan the "No. 1" target in a group that also included...

On April 18, just days after a U.S.-led coalition wrapped up the first round of renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran, the Republic of Azerbaijan made an announcement. In a statement released online, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of National Security said it had “conducted large-scale special operations” to disband a terrorist cell of about 20 al Qaeda-linked operatives. The alleged terrorists reportedly had plans to attack “shrines, mosques, and prayer houses” in addition to “law-enforcement agencies.” Their intent, according to Azerbaijani officials, was “to create [an] atmosphere of .  .  . confusion and horror among the population.” Al Qaeda has operated in Azerbai-jan since the...

Briton key suspect in nuclear ring Man accused of smuggling parts tells Guardian: 'I was framed' Owen Bowcott, Ian Traynor in Zagreb, John Aglionby in Jakarta and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Thursday February 12, 2004 The Guardian (UK) A Middle East-based British businessman has emerged as a key suspect in a secret network supplying Libya, Iran and North Korea with equipment to build nuclear bombs. Speaking for the first time yesterday, Paul Griffin denied that his company played any part in shipping prohibited material from the Far East. He told the Guardian: "We have been framed." His comments came as...

Iran had claimed that they had limited their stock of enriched uranium to 300 kilograms (about 600 pounds) as required by the JCPOA. Iran has enriched 24 tons of uranium since signing the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, said the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, on Sunday, according to Radio Farda. Tehran claimed that it had limited its stock of enriched uranium to 300 kg. as required by the JCPOA.

The lawyer for Jonathan Keith ''Jack'' Idema said Tuesday that he doesn't think Idema can get a fair trial in an Afghan court. Idema, who is from Fayetteville, has been held in an Afghan jail since his July 5 arrest on charges of kidnapping and torturing Afghan citizens. Two other Americans, Brent Bennett of Fayetteville and Ed Caraballo of New York, are being held with him. Idema has been identified as the leader of the group. He has said he and the others were hunting down terrorists. A hearing in a Kabul court for the three men was set to...

This is right up there with the congressman worrying that stationing Marines on Guam could cause the island to tip over and capsize . . . On CNN this morning, Chris Cuomo expressed the concern that under a denuclearization deal with North Korea, the NORK nukes might be sent to . . . Pakistan. Panelists Jon Avlon and Gordon Chang talked poor Chris in off the ledge, assuring him that wouldn’t happen.Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Jimmy Carter began the first Iranian hostage crisis and Reagan ended it. Obama began America’s second Iranian hostage crisis. President Trump just ended it. On January 12, 2016, Iran's IRGC terror force seized 2 US Navy vessels, extracted classified information from their crews at gunpoint, broadcast images of American sailors on their knees and forced an officer to read an apology. A day later, the Islamic terror state released its American hostages. Three days later, Implementation Day lifted sanctions on Iran. By next month, Iran was claiming that it had received over $100 billion in sanctions relief. It was not...

Vice President Pence has told congressional leaders that President Trump plans to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, Fox News has learned. A source said that Trump has made the decision to withdraw – and his announcement Tuesday afternoon will start a 90-day countdown to the restoration of sanctions. Once sanctions are re-imposed, the U.S. effectively would be out of the deal. It's not clear which sanctions lifted under the deal Trump plans to immediately re-impose. He has several options. A more limited move could leave Trump more room to potentially stay in the deal if other members agree...

Iranian leaders are threatening to restart the country's contested nuclear enrichment program in just a matter of days as the Trump administration and European allies scramble to address a range of flaws in the landmark nuclear accord ahead of a May deadline that could see the United States walk away from the accord, according to regional reports and administration insiders. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization disclosed on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has maintained the ability to restart the full-scale enrichment of uranium—the key component in a nuclear weapon that was supposed to be removed from Iran as...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met senior South Korean government officials for the first time and said it is his “firm will to vigorously advance” inter-Korean ties and pursue reunification, the North’s official news agency said on Tuesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets members of the special delegation of South Korea's President in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 6, 2018. A 10-member South Korean delegation led by National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong traveled to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Monday in hopes of encouraging...

Vladimir Putin warned the West Thursday that Russia has developed a high tech new arsenal — including a supersonic nuclear weapon that can reach any spot on Earth while avoiding missile-defense systems. Delivering his annual State of the Union address, the Russian president said his country was prepared to use its nukes if attacked, and added that Moscow would consider a nuclear attack on its allies as a nuclear attack on the Motherland — and would retaliate immediately. “I want to tell all those who have fueled the arms race over the last 15 years, sought to win unilateral advantages...

Ex-NATO commander: North Korea likely getting help with nukes, rockets from China or Russia Retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander, in an interview on Sunday said North Korea is likely receiving outside help from allies like China, Russia or Iran as it races to develop its weapons arsenal. “You’ve got to think that at least part of it is coming from either China or Russia and I have no evidence of that, but the idea that [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un] would simply be developing this on an indigenous basis within his own population of...

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said today that the diplomatic options are running out after North Korea fired a new kind of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The rogue dictator Kim Jong Un boasted that the Hwasong-15 can be armed with a nuclear warhead and could strike the U.S. mainland. The ICBM was fired at 2:48 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the regime said, traveling 596 miles and demonstrating the potential to reach a range of 8,100 miles. Bolton said this test-launch is "significant" because, if the early estimates are confirmed, it leaves no doubt that Pyongyang is "getting very close"...