Word: nuclearism
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...look real. The hardening of positions in both Tehran and Washington over the past week has brought relations to their lowest point since the Iran hostage crisis that began in 1979. Both sides insist that they seek no military conflict, but tensions on issues ranging from Iran's nuclear program to influence in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli peace process is turning their differences into all-out regional power struggle. Last week, Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice criticized Iran's "emboldened foreign policy" and "hegemonic aspirations," while asserting that the U.S. will continue to be engaged on economic, political...
...accident, if not by design - a greater possibility than before. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after stepping up defiance of U.S.-led efforts to compel Iran to halt enrichment, this week appeared to gain greater domestic influence over the issue with the replacement of Iran's pragmatic top nuclear negotiator by a key Ahmadinejad ally. After President Bush invoked the specter of World War III to press the urgency of stopping Iran, the Administration followed up with another round of punitive measures...
...looks like a slow-motion train wreck," said Barbara Slavin, author of a new book, Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation. "Neither side is willing to back down and the chances for conflict are growing over the nuclear program and Iran's support for U.S. adversaries in the Middle East...
...showdown has elements of a perfect storm. The decline of U.S. fortunes in Iraq has been accompanied by a rise in Iranian assertiveness, which has intensified with Ahmadinejad's recent tough talk. Trumpeting Iran's nuclear ambitions as a nationalist cause, Ahmadinejad rejected the agreement by his moderate predecessor, Mohammed Khatami, to voluntarily suspend uranium-enrichment during three years of negotiations with European powers. Ahmadinejad abandoned Khatami's "dialogue of civilizations" for more confrontational rhetoric, calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and goading the West by denying the Holocaust. Iran enthusiastically backed Hizballah and Hamas in their...
...like everything else in Iraq, it's not that simple. There is, for starters, the perception problem of an apparent U.S. double standard with regard to Kurdish insurgents. The Bush Administration, in its effort to force Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program and stop arming and funding disruptive Shi'a parties in Iraq, has not attempted to hide its sympathy for Iranian Kurds - the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK. The PJAK operates from Iraqi Kurdistan and reportedly has been making regular forays into Iran, attacking Iranian army units, and returning to Iraq. The PJAK operates...