An Israeli F16C Jet fighter returns to Ramat David air force base in northern Israel.
An Israeli F16C Jet fighter returns to Ramat David air force base in northern Israel.
nuclear sites is increasingly unlikely in the waning days of the Bush Administration. The Israelis, along with everyone else, are now counting on European-led diplomatic efforts to persuade the Iranians to halt their uranium-enrichment program. But they know diplomacy may fail, which is why a debate now rages in the highest circles of Israel's government and military: If the Europeans fail and the Americans remain reluctant to launch another war in the Middle East, should Israel strike alone against Iran?

Discussions over the fate of Iran’s nuclear program have entered a critical stage. Faced with the stiffening resolve of the international community, Iranian leaders are frantically maneuvering to find a way to avoid the expansion of sanctions against their country. With no clear solution to its dilemma at hand, however, Tehran appears to be playing for time.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iran’s vice president and head of the country’s atomic energy agency, tried to sound optimistic on July 24 when discussing the possibility of a nuclear arrangement that would satisfy both Tehran and the international community. A group comprising the five permanent United Nations Security Council

By Chandramohan - Syndicate Features looks like the United States is now ready to accept Iran, hitherto viewed by it as a vital part in the ‘axis of evil’,

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov) - On his way back from the inconclusive Geneva talks between Tehran and the Iran Six over the disputed Iranian nuclear program, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili stopped in Ankara and held talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babajan.
Babajan, who also met with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki that same day, flew to Washington after the talks ended.
e situation and find a compromise.

By Sara Flounders What is the significance of the widely publicized announcement that the Bush administration has finally agreed to talk to Iran?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran will ignore UN resolutions imposed by "arrogant powers." (Getty Images) To no one's surprise,

The Guardian has revealed that the United States plans to establish a low-level diplomatic mission in Tehran, for the first time in nearly three decades. "We will receive favourably any action which will help to reinforce relations between the peoples," a conciliatory Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters.
Striking an equally conciliatory note, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said last month: "We are determined to reach out to the Iranian people."
citizen and that its nuclear ambitions are civilian, and hence within the scope of international law. In fact a House of Common's investigation concluded that: "We do not believe that the United States or any other country has the right to dictate to Iran how it meets its increasing demand for electricity."

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday dubbed the US presence at international talks aimed to diffuse the row over Iran's nuclear program as a "positive step," while vowing that Iran would not abandon its right to atomic energy. The United States took the unprecedented step of sending its number three diplomat, William Burns, to meet Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili while attending Saturday's conference in Geneva which ended in a stalemate.
Washington severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in 1980 following the overthrow of the US-backed Shah.
charge could be aimed at making nuclear weapons. However, Tehran - and a December 2007 National Intelligence

TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday vowed that Iran would not yield in the crisis over its nuclear drive but the White House warned again that it risks more sanctions if it fails to freeze sensitive nuclear work.
"The Iranian people are steadfast and will not step back an inch against the oppressive powers," Ahmadinejad told a rally in the southwestern province of Kohgelouyeh-Boyerahmad.
ional sanctions would follow.

By Ladane Nasseri July 23 (Bloomberg) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Persian Gulf nation will resist pressure from world powers to halt its nuclear program, following talks that failed to produce a breakthrough in the dispute over the project.
``They said Iran has surrendered. They are mistaken,'' Ahmadinejad said today, referring to the international quarrel, in a speech broadcast live on state television from the western town of Yasouj. ``If the great powers think they can sit down and discuss Iran's rights and pressurize Iranians, such a thing won't happen in 100 years.''
ed oil prices to a record earlier this month, amid concerns that Israel or the U.S. might resort to military action to halt the atomic drive, should diplomacy fail.

Consider this wild scenario: After years of demonizing each other, the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran put their differences behind them. They agree to be strategic partners and sign a document to seal it. They forgive each other for their past offenses. Americans lift the freeze on Iranian assets in the US and Iranians reciprocate by welcoming a US mission in Tehran. And then they live happily ever after.
I know what you are thinking. What is wild about this? Everybody knows that despite their hawkish rhetoric, Americans and Iranians are dying to talk to each other. Their differences in ideology and foreign policy are radically different. But for some strange