Obama Iran Engagement

How could we get a clean shot at what the administration is not doing to move the ball forward on Iran diplomacy? We can demand the reversal of the "no contact" policy for U.S. diplomats.

How is it that the same candidate who advocated so strongly for using diplomacy with Iran ended up being the president that has implemented the most "crippling" sanctions to date -- and who made only one inchoate effort at negotiations?

It is lack of political courage that has permitted this looming confrontation. Only courage and will can bring us out of it. The question is whether Obama can muster that will in an election year when any compromise is bound to be cast by Republicans as a betrayal of Israel.

That the president feels he must call in Western journalists to signal Tehran is a sad commentary on the administration's failure to develop a discreet and reliable channel to communicate with Iranian leaders.

I came back from the Hertzliya Conferences, Israel's political follow up to Davos, with the eerie sense that a new four-letter word has emerged in the international arena: Iran.

The silent protest began in Imam Khomeini Square in front of the forbidding Ministry of Telecommunications, which was busy cutting off cellphones but ...

As an Iranian Twelver, I have no doubt that if the Mahdi is among us, he would agree that the so-called Islamic republic has indeed constituted a great disservice to Islam.

Even as the White House says it will let the "dust" settle in Iran first, its steadfastness belies a certitude that the changing face of Iran will be ready for U.S. engagement any time soon.

It took Ayatullah Khomeini to lead us away from imperialist rule and toward bona fide independence, and it will take an equally charismatic and rousing figure to lead us toward secular democracy.

As members of Iran's baby-boomer generation such as myself start entering our 30s, we are sending a message to our leaders: we've grown up, we're sick of your empty promises, and we've learned how to mobilize in true Iranian style.

LONDON — President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations ar...

The Obama administration's announcement that it will directly participate in meetings with Iran is an overdue move. It isn't America that's put on the spot by Obama's policy shift. It's Iran.

Who would have imagined that President Obama may well determine his historical legacy and reputation on the basis of the way he deals with Iran?

Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran's Parliament, on Wednesday criticized the United States in harsher terms than any other leading Iranian figure has d...

There is a very important reason for Iran's reluctance to change its tone overnight. It is due to a political trend I call the "cult of anti-Americanism."

If truly comprehensive and tough economic sanctions were imposed on Iran now -- for the very first time -- its leaders might very well be forced to negotiate with the West.

Engagement through new diplomatic avenues, like Obama's video to Iran, is worthwhile, but we must not lose sight of the challenge Iran still poses.

Yesterday, Obama put forward a vision for a new era of US-Iran ties. In almost every aspect, Obama's approach was the opposite of that of President George Bush.