IRAN
AP Photo
March 23, 2009
"Dialogue or Dictating to Iran?"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
The American gestures to Iran seem sincere and serious, but from the Iranian perspective they still suffer from the persistent structural weakness of dictating the rules of the game to Iran and others in the Arab-Asian region.
AP Photo
March 11, 2009
"Iran's Nuclear Deception"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"We probably will never know whether the case of the found enriched uranium was a mistake or a feint. That uncertainty, however, and the horrible consequences of a significant lapse in our ability to monitor Iran's nuclear program should lead the IAEA, the Obama administration, and our European negotiating partners to exercise great caution in considering proposals that would depend on intricate and foolproof verification schemes."
AP Photo
March 9, 2009
"The Promise of 'Normal Ties'"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Now that the United States has initiated diplomatic engagement with Syria and Iran, Damascus and Tehran will feel new pressure to say what they want -- rather than mainly to criticize the US and say what they reject.
AP
March 6, 2009
War or Peace: President Obama’s Challenges in the Middle East
Speech
By R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics
The only way forward for the United States is to lead, but in a new way and with a new attitude.
AP Photo
March 4, 2009
"For Iraq Stability, Look to Iran and Syria"
Op-Ed, PostGlobal, A Conversation on Global Issues with David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria
By Kayhan Barzegar, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
"If ethnic strife should return to Iraq in the post-withdrawal era, the United States must encourage cooperation between regional actors, especially Syria and Iran. By returning to Iraq, America will only further complicate the crisis in an already complex region. Instead, addressing the security concerns of regional actors and focusing on common interests that exist between them and America, and subsequently getting these regional actors' cooperation, would be a less costly way to avoid the return of civil war."
AP Photo
March 3, 2009
"U.S., E.U. World Community Organizers"
Op-Ed, The Providence Journal
By Richard N. Rosecrance, Adjunct Professor; Senior Fellow, International Security Program; Director, Project on U.S.-China Relations
"In the Mideast, community organizing requires not a two-state solution, but an approximation to a two-state confederation. The Palestinians cannot survive (even geographically) without access to Israel and the outside world. Israel cannot continue its imperial role in the West Bank (and the use of force in Gaza), nor can it withdraw. Autonomy and exclusion is not possible for two such inextricably related foes. They can exist only together."
AP Photo
March 2, 2009
"Even America's Foes Want to Talk"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"The Middle East comprises the world’s oldest commercial bazaars and trade routes -- where foreign caravans and armies alike pass through on a regular basis, and the locals have learned that survival is usually enhanced by making deals with the foreigners for the mutual benefit of both sides."
March 2, 2009
Listen to Gholam Afkhami discuss US-Iranian relations
Event Report
In a Dubai Initiative Seminar on February 11, Gholam Reza Afkhami linked misperceptions around current U.S.-Iranian relations to misperceptions of the Iranian revolution thirty years before. Arguing that to understand Iran and how it engages with other countries, Dr. Afkhami stressed that an understanding of the Iranian constitution is crucial.
AP Photo
February 25, 2009
"Building Relations with Iran and Syria"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"Reconnecting on the basis of a common commitment to respect, reciprocity and rights might offer a more effective path forward, if more mature officials in the United States, Iran and Syria risk attempting such an approach."
AP Photo
February 23, 2009
"A Dangerous Gap in the Middle East"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"There is great danger in the gap between Israeli extremism and the more accommodating realism and pragmatism of everyone else in the Middle East -- including an America that seems slowly to be coming to its senses again."
