As Iranians go to cast their ballots in Friday's elections, it is much more than just Iran's future that is at stake. The White House is closely following the elections, as is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister may be watching Washington's reaction to the results more...

Well, this saga is just getting worse and worse. I reported earlier this week that H.R. 1327, the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2009 had been put on Congress' suspension calendar (fast track voting) for Tuesday - a move that puzzled many since imposing new sanctions on Iran four...

UPDATE

The House of Representatives is no longer planning to vote on the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2009 this week. After publishing an article on Huffington Post about this, my staff at the National Iranian American Council was contacted by the House Financial Services Committee who informed...

Tehran's sentencing of Roxana Saberi to eight years of prison for spying has shocked people inside and outside the country. At a time when President Barack Obama is seeking a dialogue with Tehran, what kind of a signal does Roxana's sentencing send, especially given that the trial failed to meet...

In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have told President Barack Obama that either America stops Iran or Israel will. Not surprisingly, the interview sparked quite a controversy and only a day later, General David Petraeus told the Senate Armed...

In an unprecedented - if not historic - New Year's message to the Iranian people and the government of Iran, President Barack Obama used the ancient Iranian New Year - Norooz - holiday to usher in a new beginning for US-Iran relations.

The video message, aired around 0800am in...

At a time when the American people finally have a President who understands diplomacy doesn't mean putting on a cowboy hat and talking like a gunslinger, a most unlikely case in a Chicago courtroom has the potential to derail President Obama's efforts to engage Iran.

Obama had hardly...

There has been much talk and speculation about bringing in Iran into consultations on Afghanistan. President Obama has appropriately turned focus back to Afghanistan, and Special Envoy Holbrooke has used very open and constructive language in regards to an Iranian role in Afghanistan.

"It is absolutely clear that Iran...

Iran's former President, the soft-spoken Mohammad Khatami, ended months of speculations and revealed his bid to challenge the current Iranian President - the not-so-soft-spoken Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - in the upcoming Presidential elections in June.

"I declare that I will stand for the next elections," Khatami told reporters on Sunday,...

While millions around the globe were glued to their TVs listening to President Obama's message of hope, decision-makers in Tehran were looking for a single-phrase alone: Mutual respect. Obama didn't disappoint.

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," Obama said...

In talking about the assault on Gaza, neo-conservative pundits and Israeli hardliners have relied on a familiar frame. The fighting in Gaza, they say, is a struggle between Israel and so-called "moderate" Arab states (namely, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) on the one hand, and Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas...

The Bush administration inherited many of Iraq's problems when it invaded that country, including an Iranian terrorist organization funded and armed by Saddam Hussein, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO).

Though the group is on the State Department's terrorist list, it still operates freely in the US -- including organizing fundraisers...

Conciliatory noises from Tehran over the nuclear issue have left Washington and Brussels baffled, and unconvinced of Iran's intentions. Having grown accustomed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's uncompromising language, Tehran's new tone has raised more suspicion than hope among cynics in Western capitals.

At a lunch with a dozen U.S. journalists...

Is war between Israel and Iran inevitable? Certainly one would be left with that impression if one solely listens to Israeli and Iranian hawks. All too often, the voice of the moderate center is lost in all the bluster. Reality is, however, war is not inevitable at all. As Shlomo...

So are Iran and Israel destined to be enemies? Not at all. And contrary to the rhetoric of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or last week's statement by Israel's Iranian-born Transportation Minister, Shaul Mofaz, who said that war with Iran was unavoidable, a military clash between Israel and Iran, or the US...

Iranian Nobel prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has long argued that the United States and Iran need to have a dialogue with each other at three different levels: between their executive branches, between their civil societies and between their legislatures.

While the George W. Bush administration has opposed direct contact with...

Google has a funny way of doing business -- one that involves muddying politics in the Middle East.

In recent months, the organization has taken the unprecedented step to rename internationally recognized bodies of water. Google Earth has begun using the controversial term "Arabian Gulf" to the body of...

The P5+1 -- the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany -- will present Tehran with a secret incentive package in the next few days to convince Iran to suspend its enrichment program and enter negotiations.

There is little doubt that Tehran will reject the offer since it...

By negotiating a Shiite truce, Tehran embarrassed Washington last week and arguably proved itself to be a more potent stabilizer of southern Iraq.

Iran's role in Iraq came as a sharp reminder that the George W. Bush administration's accusations of Iranian mischief notwithstanding, Iranian influence in Iraq is both undeniable...

When it comes to Iran, President Bush has all but banged the drums of war. In fact, when faced with the question of Iran's nuclear file, it's been talk of sanctions or war, but nothing else -- even though sanctions have gotten us nowhere.

On April 8, the National...