Jamal Abdi

Today the House is planning to take up H.Res.568 -- a resolution that shifts the U.S. redline for war with Iran -- on a suspension vote. There has not been a single hearing on this measure and no debate about its very serious implications.

If passed, the House will...

The crux of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran is that, at some point, in order to succeed, each side will have to take a deep breath and shake hands on a deal. But thirty years of mutual demonization and fear mongering, means it takes serious political courage to come...

As a staffer on Capitol Hill when Barack Obama was elected, I was in the meetings with AIPAC in which -- facing a president with enormous political capital and a pro-diplomacy agenda -- they claimed to support talks with Iran. This despite the savaging that Obama as a candidate endured...

Here is one of those policies that makes you scratch your head and wonder how its taken this long for things to get this bad between the U.S. and Iran: American and Iranian diplomats are actually BANNED from making ANY contact with one another without prior authorization.

That's right--while...

We're at a rare moment in which both the United States and Iran have unclenched their fists and appear ready for real talks.

Obama, thankfully, has taken the pro-war crowd to task. The P5+1 are finally setting new negotiations for April. And Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei took the...

This post originally appeared on The Hill.

Just as with the lead-up to the Iraq War, the pathway to war with Iran will be paved with false assertions, self-fulfilling saber-rattling and political weakness that might seem insignificant now, but will in retrospect turn out to be disastrous.

Yet another round of Iran sanctions is coming before the House Foreign Affairs Committee tomorrow morning and could be sent to the Senate in a matter of weeks. But while the bill is supposedly an escalation of sanctions against the Iranian regime, in reality these are sanctions against the U.S....

For the first time since the May 2010 "Tehran Declaration," Iran has offered a proposal that could break the deadlock over its nuclear program. While there are many unanswered questions about the contours of the proposal and about Iran's motivations for offering it, there is only one way...

The unprecedented campaign in Washington to remove the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations represents a critical threat to Iran's indigenous democratic movement. Unlike Iran's democratic opposition, which advances through nonviolence the principles of democracy and human rights, the MEK is an undemocratic...

With a new push for even more "crippling" Iran sanctions coming out of Congress, and renewed signs from the president that further sanctions may be in the offing, it is more important than ever for Americans, particularly Americans of Iranian descent, to evaluate the unintended impact these sanctions...

On March 20, President Obama marked Norooz, the Iranian New Year, with his strongest words to date in solidarity with the people of Iran. "Though times may seem dark," he told Iranians, "I am with you."

Days later, with significant US backing, the UN Human Rights Council voted...

In a move that threatens to exacerbate tensions in a region already pushed to the brink, the US Navy recently circulated an official directive to its personnel to refer to the Persian Gulf by the propaganda term "Arabian Gulf." The directive, appearing in the US Navy Style Guide,...

Washington risks entering into a game of escalating provocations with Tehran even as continuing efforts to restart talks in November are underway. Iran's announcement that the two US hikers being held Evin prison will now face trial just ahead of the talks is no coincidence. The move is particularly shameful...

Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a measure that would green-light an Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. The resolution, H.Res. 1553 (in full below), provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress supports Israel's use of "all means necessary" against Iran "including the...

The early verdict on the new Iran sanctions is that even the "smart" sanctions have proven to be, well, dumb. Instead of targeting Iranian government officials connected to the nuclear program or who are complicit in human rights abuses, the new sanctions are punishing young Iranians who have been the...

This week may be looked back on as the pivotal moment when war with Iran entered the mainstream of political thought in the Obama era. At a time when Iranians are standing up to an Iranian government that has been deprived of the Bush-era shadow of war, that shadow is...

On February 19, Mark Kirk, a Republican Congressman from Illinois running for a promotion to the US Senate, delivered a speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to share his views on Iran policy. While initial reports didn't indicate anything much new was said by the Representative, who has...

Last night, the Senate voted to pass disastrous legislation under the auspices of getting "tough" on Iran. Unfortunately, the bill is only "tough" on the Iranian people, punishing them in the midst of their historic struggle for rights while hamstringing the President as he deals with Iran's nuclear program. To...

Iranians will soon have a new tool at their disposal to broadcast their protests and their government's repression to the outside world. Voice of America announced last week that it will unveil a new application for iPhone and Android mobile devices that will enable Iranians to upload videos, photos and...

The 111th Congress is barreling forward in a last minute race to enact what may prove to be one of the most damaging American foreign policy decision for years to come before adjourning for the holidays. It is a decision that may isolate us from our closest allies and biggest...