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Two US officials involved in negotiations over renewing the 2015 Irn nuclear deal have stepped back from the talks and a third has left the team altogether amid internal discord over how firm the White House should be with Tehran, according to a report. Richard Nephew, the State Department's deputy special envoy for Iran who pushed for a tougher approach, has not been part of the talks since early December, Wall Street Journal reported Monday. A State Department spokesman told Reuters late Monday that Nephew was no longer in the envoy role, though he was still at the department. Two...

Diplomatic sources close to the negotiating teams in Vienna say nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries may stretch into the weekend. They say it may take until July 13 for the sides to strike a deal on Iran's nuclear program. Previously, negotiators extended the talks until Friday after they missed the self-imposed deadline of June 30. Meanwhile, the Russian foreign minister says negotiations in the Austrian capital continue with daily progress. On Thursday, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi are holding a meeting with US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. Iran's ambassador...

VIENNA - Anyone who says it's all work and no play for the hordes of diplomats, officials, security agents, analysts and reporters who have descended on Vienna for what should be the finale of almost two years of Iran nuclear talks is dead wrong. As the manager of a local brothel said, when the Iran talks are in town, "business is booming". He declined to say who were his most frequent customers, but made clear that, as far as he was concerned, the longer the negotiations between Iran and six world powers drag on, the better. Some journalists are also...

Ever since assuming office in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama has had an affinity to tackle problems in respect to the Iranian regime through rapprochement and appeasement. This approach has manifested itself in giving unwarranted concessions to Tehran regarding its nuclear program and its regional ambitions, and ignoring the chaos and mayhem caused by the Iranian regime in the region. Obama thinks such tactics will eventually lead to the resolution of the problems that are riddling the Middle East. The reality is, the continuation of this failed policy will inevitably cause the exacerbation of the turmoil and possibly lead to...

Arab intelligence agencies tell European countries that Irans military is ready to close Strait of Hormuz if nuclear talks fail. - Ch. 10

'I don't read Farsi': State Department spokeswoman brushes off claims that Iran is misrepresenting terms of nuclear deal Within hours of a formal announcement that the United States, Iran and a group of five other world powers had brokered a deal keep Iran obtaining an atomic bomb in exchange for the relief of certain sanctions, cracks began to appear in the tediously negotiated preliminary agreement. The United States insisted in public statements and a fact sheet on the deal that sanctions on the country would be 'suspended' or 'phased' out over time after a final deal is inked while leaving...

Many U.S. Jewish leaders are unnerved both by the new Iran nuclear agreement and the public falling out between President Barack Obama and his Israeli counterpart, developments that are creating a rift in the durable alliance between Jews and the Democratic Party in the run-up to the 2016 elections. Worried that Iran might still develop a nuclear weapon despite the accord announced Thursday, the Jewish leaders say they feel torn between an Obama administration that has pressed hard for a deal and an Israeli government that has repeatedly warned that Iran is a grave threat to the Jewish state and...

In a greeting to the Iranian people on the occasion of the traditional New Year (Nowruz) holiday last week, Secretary of State John Kerry exposed a secret that journalists and academics have been agonizing over for the past six weeks: the fact that his daughter has married an Iranian-American who has extensive family ties to Iran. “I am proud of the Iranian-Americans in my own family, and grateful for how they have enriched my life,” Kerry said in the official statement. Kerry also said he was “strongly committed to resolving” the differences between the United States and the Islamic Republic...

CAIRO — As America talks to Iran, Saudi Arabia is lashing out against it. The kingdom, Iran’s chief regional rival, is leading airstrikes against an Iranian-backed faction in Yemen; backing a blitz in Idlib, Syria, by jihadists fighting the Iranian-backed Assad regime; and warning Washington not to allow the Iranian-backed militia to capture too much of Iraq during the fight to roll back the Islamic State, according to Arab diplomats familiar with the talks. Through Egypt, a major beneficiary of Saudi aid, the kingdom is backing plans for a combined Arab military force to combat Iranian influence around the region....

Iran called for political talks between all parties in Yemen as the Saudi-led coalition on Tuesday extended its campaign of airstrikes against Houthi militants in provinces across the country. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said intervention in Yemen wouldn’t solve the country’s problems and that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies “were putting themselves in a very difficult position” by launching airstrikes. “We believe that the situation in Yemen should be resolved through political means only,” he said in a Monday interview with the Russian state-run news channel Russia Today, the first such Iranian comments since Saudi Arabia began...

Talks between Iran and the P5+1 powers are likely to extend beyond President Barack Obama’s self-imposed deadline of midnight Tuesday night, the Associated Press reported. Quoting anonymous sources, AP said that marathon talks have produced “mixed results” but that both sides will issue a general statement to continue negotiations, exactly what President Obama said would not happen.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Wrapping up six days of marathon nuclear talks with mixed results, Iran and six world powers prepared Tuesday to issue a general statement agreeing to continue negotiations in a new phase aimed at reaching a comprehensive accord by the end of June, officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The joint statement is to be accompanied by additional documents that outline more detailed understandings, allowing the sides to claim enough progress has been made thus far to merit a new round, the officials said. One of the officials said the statement was general in part because differences...

Foreign Policy Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:28 Iranian Negotiator Stresses Withdrawal of Powers from Past Stances in N. Talks TEHRAN (FNA)- Director General for Political Affairs at the Iranian Foreign Ministry and nuclear negotiator Hamid Baeidinejad said on Wednesday that the western powers have withdrawn from their previous positions in nuclear talks with Tehran. "The other side has withdrawn from its positions compared with the past, otherwise we wouldn’t have stood at this point and stage in the talks at all," Baeidinejad told reporters in Tehran on Wednesday. Yet, the Iranian negotiator stressed that certain issues have still remained unresolved...

Saudi commentator: ‘He is gambling with the future of the region’JERUSALEM—With Washington cozying up to Tehran as nuclear negotiations approach countdown stage, Arab media in the region are lashing out at the United States for jilting its Arab allies. Unlike Israelis, who are focused on the danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of a regime calling for their country’s elimination, citizens of Arab states are concerned about Iran’s imperial ambitions. The nuclear threat is seen as a tool to further those ambitions rather than a direct threat. Khaled Al-Dahil, a Saudi political commentator writing in the London-based daily Al-Hayat,...

“He thinks he is going to do a Nixon to China. He is the man who is going to develop the entente, the understanding, the condominium with Iran to run the Middle East. We will join with them. We are going to recognize their presence, their dominance in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon, and now in Yemen as that will be the reward for having cut a deal with us on nuclear weapons.” “That’s impossible, O’Reilly said, “because if that ever were to come true, we would alienate all of the Sunni nations. Saudi Arabia, the Emirates…” “But that’s exactly...

Yuval Steinitz says Israel and France share concerns over US-led hasty deal with Iran, as he ends a 2-day special diplomatic mission. Israel's intelligence minister on Tuesday wrapped up a two-day European diplomatic offensive against making concessions to Iran in nuclear negotiations with world powers, his spokesman said. "Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz completed two days of intensive discussion in Paris and London," a statement from Eyal Basson said, adding that the minister was accompanied by National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen and "intelligence experts". "They met the British negotiating team, headed by Simon Gass, and senior intelligence officials," the statement said,...

When the CBS show “Madam Secretary” premiered last September, there was much speculation [1] and hand-wringing about whether or not the title character, Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord played by Tea Leoni, was inspired by Hillary Clinton, and if this show was meant as a long-running political ad humanizing Hillary Clinton. Such an effort might help make her ascension to the White House seem plausible, if not inevitable. Despite the denials, it seems clear that “Madam Secretary” was just such an effort, and still is. But in the few episodes I’ve watched, I haven’t seen much of what we know...

No, it isn’t, as any American soldier who’s faced off with a Shiite militia in Iraq could tell you, but that’s where we’re at right now in American diplomacy. Watch to the very end of the clip below for the key bit from Jim Acosta and ask yourself if this is something the White House sincerely believes or if they’re now so invested in a legacy-building detente with Iran that they’re willing to spin “death to America” rhetoric from the mullahs to get it done. David Brooks, pondering the related question of Iranian anti-semitism, thinks it’s more the latter...

In 1982, during one of many visits to Israel, I had the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who told me, "Israel needs friends." He added that in the end, his nation could not trust any nation with its fate and security. The protection of Israel, he said, was ultimately the responsibility of Israelis. Begin's comment was prophetic given the petulance of our current president, who behaves like an enemy of Israel when he attempts to impose a Palestinian state on Israel and negotiate a deal with Iran that can only lead to new threats against the Jewish...

When an Israeli leader questions the wisdom of trading land for peace with Islamic terrorists, President Obama has a fit. But when an Iranian Ayatollah threatens to destroy America, he dismisses it as a rhetorical flourish. ... Contrast Mr. Obama’s pique regarding a misunderstanding with Israel with his blasé attitude towards unambiguous threats from Iran. On Saturday, in a speech in Tehran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei denounced key aspects of the ongoing nuclear negotiations, as well as the international sanctions regime, and Mr. Obama’s video message to the Iranian people. When the crowd began chanting the traditional Iranian mantra, “Death...