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Iran and the United States signaled a fresh will on Sunday to seek to end the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program after Hassan Rouhani was sworn in as president and called for dialogue to reduce "antagonism and aggression". "The only way for interaction with Iran is dialogue on an equal footing, confidence-building and mutual respect as well as reducing antagonism and aggression," Rouhani told parliament after taking his oath of office. "If you want the right response, don't speak with Iran in the language of sanctions, speak in the language of respect," he said. Within hours, the United States said...

n a rare diplomatic snub, President Obama is canceling plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month. The decision reflects both U.S. anger over Russia's harboring of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and growing frustration within the Obama administration over what it sees as Moscow's stubbornness on other key issues, including missile defense and human rights. Obama will still attend the Group of 20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, but a top White House official said the president had no plans to hold one-on-one talks with Putin while there. Instead of visiting Putin in...

WASHINGTON – The White House is considering canceling a fall summit between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a move that would further aggravate the already tense relationship between the two leaders. The White House is dangling that option over the Russians as Moscow considers a temporary asylum petition from Edward Snowden, the American accused of leaking information about classified U.S. intelligence programs. But officials have privately signaled that scrapping the bilateral talks would also be retaliation for other areas of disagreement with Russia, including its continued support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's attacks against civilians.

Russia Today has released excerpts of what are said to be highly sensitive emails sent from a former Clinton administration staffer to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following the September attacks on the consulate in Benghazi, obtained this week by a hacker known as "Guccifer."

John Kerry is going to have a rough tenure as secretary of state. But let’s face it, whoever came after Hillary Clinton was going to have to deal with a foreign affairs press corps that has been sleeping for four years. From the moment Hillary entered Foggy Bottom, political reporters have treated their beloved secretary of state with kid gloves. Watching media outlets now play catch-up on just how dangerous the world really is makes you feel a bit sorry for Kerry. Suddenly the State Department reporters have realized that Iran is about to get a nuclear weapon, GITMO is...

After a long and chilly four years, Barack Obama hopes to reset his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he makes his first trip to Israel as president this spring. Obama won’t be carrying any big new Mideast peace plans when he embarks on the trip, which will also include a stop in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, officials say. But repairing the relationship with Netanyahu, a key ally with whom Obama has often been at odds, could itself be a crucial step toward reopening a pathway to peace in the region. … Despite the deep ties between the...

Russia is terminating the agreement on cooperation with the United States in the fields of law and drug enforcement, the Russian government said Wednesday, Jan 30, according to RIA Novosti. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a relevant order to terminate the deal, the government said in a statement on its website. “The order was initiated by the Russian Foreign Ministry, as the above agreement is out of line with today’s realities and has exhausted its potential,” the statement said. The agreement was signed on September 25, 2002. As part of the deal, the United States provided financial assistance to...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the violence in Libya on Monday amid reports that dictator Moammar Gadhafi had fled the country. Soon after, Gadhafi appeared on state TV to say that he hadn't gone anywhere. "Don't believe those misleading dog stations," he said. "The world is watching the situation in Libya with alarm," Clinton said in a statement. "We join the international community in strongly condemning the violence in Libya. Our thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives have been lost, and with their loved ones." Human-rights groups have reported hundreds of Libyans being killed by snipers,...

Russia is the real victim of the spy scandal, Moscow angrily said yesterday -- while the Obama administration acted embarrassed at carrying off the biggest counterespionage coup in years. Kremlin officials acknowledged that at least 10 of the 11 suspects caught in the US spy dragnet were Russian citizens. But in a bizarre role reversal, they said this showed America was acting irresponsibly. "Back at your home, the police went out of control," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a visiting Bill Clinton in Moscow. "Throwing people in jail." Clinton appeared to chuckle but made no comment. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/soviet_style_red_whine_XTjYKoUKMnBm2cI664QvcL#ixzz0sKp5eYkC

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has been left red faced after mistakenly sending a birthday message to the Queen a week early. An official statement from the US foreign policy chief paid tribute to the "Queen’s life and legacy,” despite the fact that the Monarch does not celebrate her official birthday until next weekend. The diplomatic faux pas, sent on behalf of President Barack Obama and the American people on Friday, also celebrated the "special relationship" between the British and US governments.

The Obama administration said Friday it has lifted sanctions against four Russian groups that had been accused of helping Syrian and Iranian weapons programs. Russian officials have publicly suggested that the removal of the groups from U.S. blacklists was a precondition to their support of a new sanctions regime against Iran, presented to the United Nations Tuesday.

A blogger for the liberal Blue Mass Group — which, we are assured, provides "reality-based commentary on politics and policy in Massachusetts" — appears to have internalized just how bad things are getting for Democrats in the Bay State. So in an attempt to rally the vote and save Ted Kennedy's seat, he is here with this rousing message (some adult language): Let's get this out of the way. You might not want to vote for Martha Coakley. You might think she deserves what's she's getting after an absentee, self-satisfied campaign (why should I bail her out?). You likely want...

Cold War: The White House has announced our absence at ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Meanwhile, Russia has been practicing a nuclear invasion of an abandoned Poland. The Berlin Wall has been a famous backdrop for American presidents sounding the battle cry of liberty in the struggle against tyranny. It was there that John F. Kennedy expressed our solidarity with the encircled residents of that outpost of freedom with his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner." And it was there that Ronald Reagan, with a defiant "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," voiced our...

WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war. But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Russian military aircraft flew just 500 feet over two U.S. Navy ships this week as the ships participated in a joint military exercise with South Korea in the Sea of Japan, according to U.S. military officials.

I heard so many liberals crying that Bush had forfeited "American prestige" in the world - and that Obama would magically restore the image of America around the world - that I finally just kept a vomit bucket next to my chair. Let us just say that a mere 6 weeks into the Obama presidency, the outright, "barf all over your shoes" idiocy of the liberal mantra. First we had Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stun Israel with her unhelpful accusations against a close friend and ally. Then we had that same Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveling to Russia...

EXCERPT: Poor Joe Biden. Just when the verbally-challenged vice president thought he had secured his position as the administration’s buffoon-in-chief, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called his bluff. Clinton gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a present today that was meant to symbolize President Obama’s promise to “press the reset button” on Russo-American relations. When Lavrov unwrapped the gift, he found a big, red push button imprinted with a Russian word “peregruzka.”....

Cannot use AP here, but Hillary presented the Russians with a mock-up RESET BUTTON to show we are resetting our relationship with Russia. But, the button said "peregruzka" — which means "overloaded" or "overcharged" rather than "reset". If Uncle Teddy were to hve done this, it should have said "overserved", or if it were Bubba, it should have been "oversexed".

A few years back, I was watching my son play little league baseball. This is not the little league you and I might remember where a few of the older kids would pitch to you with the coach standing behind them, but our new liberalized "T-Ball" little league where the kids get to stand up at the plate and cut away at a stationary ball ad infinitum until they hit it and get to run to base. On this day the unthinkable happened. A boy hit the ball, and a player actually caught it, turned and made a strong throw...