'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

A new mediator for Tehran & Washington: Iraq!

So now, the ever-mercurial Ali Dabbagh, spokesman for Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki, says he's been urging Barack Obama to initiate a serious, sustained dialogue with Iran. Reuters reports that Dabbagh,...

Biggest items on next Prez's plate

Here's a good question: Why would anyone want to become president of the United States at a time of such huge and multifaceted crises? Well, I guess two years ago,...

The struggle for Baghdad's soul?

The WaPo's Mary Beth Sheridan has a piece in today's paper describing the US-Iraqi negotiations over a SOFA as having an important backstory of a US-Iranian struggle for influence over...

US and Iran: A welcome diplomatic opening

The US and Iranian ambassadors in Baghdad met for four hours earlier today, hosted by Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki in his office in the Baghdad Green Zone. This was the...

US-Iran Talks -- and a partnership?

US-Iran watchers are holding their collective breath in hopes that the talks between America and Iran bear fruit. I'm guardedly impressed that the talks are happening. President Bush has belatedly...

When all else fails in Iraq,...

blame Iran. It's a tried, tired, and (not) true neocon formula, dating to the very first signs of trouble in Iraq after Saddam, four years ago. It's the same ole'Allan...

Making Persian Gulf Security Durable (Ramazani)

FYI, here's a recently published short essay by R.K. Ramazani, as I mentioned in discussions here several days ago. Seeking to go beyond the immediate details of the recent UK-Iran...

UK sailors released.... "stunning" ?

(5:05 pm. update: Gary Sick's G2k comments are now appended in the continuation) Iran's President Ahmadinejad has announced that "he" will be releasing the British sailors. The US airwaves are...

The US and Iran, in Iraq

One week ago today we were sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Amman, Jordan, talking with the very smart and well-informed Middle East analyst Joost Hiltermann about the...

Iranians' views of Saddam's hanging

Most news accounts of the reaction of Iranians to Saddam Hussein's hanging have spoken of the glee with which Iranians at many different levels of society greeted the news. For...

Khatami in Charlottesville, wary of too-rapid US exit from Iraq

So today, I heard the former President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sayyed Mohammad Khatami, give a prepared lecture to a small audience at the University of Virginia....

HC column on risk of broad Iranian-Arab war

My latest column for al-Hayat was posted on their English-language website Thursday. I'm not sure which day it was in their Arabic edition, but most likely a little earlier... Update...

Iran in Iraq

Attentive JWN readers will remember that a while back I was asking some questions about the nature of the Iranian regime's interests in Iraq. Today, a friend referred me to...

Iran, Iraq, (Lebanon)

So finally, 39 months into Iraq's "liberation", there is some hope that an outside power will be able to help it get back on its feet. That would be mega-neighbor...