Showing posts for "Iran"
At her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton said the United States should “pursue a strategy of smart power in the Middle East,” and should not “give up on peace” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In her opening statement Tuesday, Clinton: Read more »
A task force led by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former defense secretary William Cohen released a report (WashPost) Monday urging President-elect Barack Obama to create a high-level forum to guide U.S. government policy on the threat of genocide.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said Monday that President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to pressure Iran on its nuclear program and other issues will not work. “The carrot-and-stick policy has no benefit,” Qashqavi said at a press briefing. “It is unacceptable and failed.” (AP)
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his first public statement on the U.S. elections, offering President-elect Barack Obama congratulations on his victory and calling on Obama to implement a foreign policy of “non-interference.” The BBC says Ahmadinejad’s gesture is the first official message of goodwill to an American leader from an Iranian president since the country’s Islamist revolution in 1979.
Among the most daunting policy challenges for the Obama administration is the Middle East. In the latest CFR Forum, Middle East experts blog on what the United States should–and shouldn’t–do in the region. Here’s a summary of what the experts are saying so far: Read more »
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told a Florida crowd that national security dangers lurk and should not be ignored amid the financial crisis. He mentioned as one potential crisis “the success of the Iranian regime in its program of acquiring nuclear weapons,” which he said could threaten Israel or spark “an uncontrollable nuclear arms race across the region.”
In their second debate, U.S. presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) sparred over the limping U.S. economy and energy policy; both tied the country’s recovery to the latter. Obama faulted McCain for a record of deregulation that he said has contributed to the current crisis; McCain, for his part, presented a new economic proposal under which the U.S. Treasury would buy up problem mortgages, in effect refinancing them (NYT) at prices homeowners can afford. The Wall Street Journal cites McCain’s campaign as saying the plan would cost roughly $300 billion. Opinion surveys have shown respondents more confident in Obama’s ability to handle an economic crisis.
Seeking to clarify a comment in the vice presidential debate, the McCain campaign has confirmed it opposes providing Iran access to nuclear energy (WashPost). “There is no circumstance under which the international community could be confident that uranium enrichment or plutonium production activities undertaken by the current government of Iran are purely for peaceful purposes,” McCain campaign foreign policy director Randy Scheunemann said. Current Bush administration policy is that Iran has a right to nuclear energy but not control over the process of producing fuel, because it could be diverted for nuclear weapons material.
U.S. Vice Presidential candidates Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) and Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sparred on U.S. military deployments in Iraq and several other foreign policy issues in their only television debate before November’s election. On the financial crisis, Biden reaffirmed statements from Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) that any federal government package created to deal with the turmoil should be focused on the middle class (FT). Palin attacked “predatory” lending practices on Wall Street and said Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) past positions cast him as an economic reformer.
Both presidential candidates said Sunday they will likely support the proposed $700 billion federal financial bailout deal. On Face the Nation Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) repeated his call (PDF) to “update our 20th century regulatory framework for a 21st century global financial system.”
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