Our Publications
Policy Briefs
December 16, 2014
According to a December 8 report in Foreign Policy, “in recent months” U.S. officials told a U.N. Panel monitoring Iran sanctions that “Iranian government procurement agents have been increasing their efforts to illicitly obtain equipment” for the heavy water reactor at Arak. This type of reactor is worrisome because of its size and design. It...
Policy Briefs
December 9, 2014
On December 7, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the recent extension of talks with Iran as a success, and predicted that a final deal could result in "three, four months, and hopefully even sooner.” Kerry may have been trying to fend off calls for the new Congress to increase sanctions at once, instead of waiting for the extension to...
Policy Briefs
December 2, 2014
Relief was the main reaction to the announcement last week that the nuclear talks with Iran had been extended for another seven months. The main loser was the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran was supposed to explain suspicious research that seemed intended for atomic bombs under an agreement with the Agency. However, Iran has been...
Policy Briefs
November 25, 2014
On November 24 the nuclear talks with Iran were extended for an additional seven months, as Iran and six world powers failed for the second time to agree on the fate of that country’s nuclear effort. During a press conference after the extension was announced, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said “we would be fools to walk away” from the talks...
Policy Briefs
November 18, 2014
Suspicion about what might come out of the nuclear talks with Iran continued to mount last week. Two U.S. Senators announced their bipartisan intent to impose additional sanctions on Iran if the talks yielded a deal they saw as weak. A day earlier, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the United States and its P5+1 partners no...
Policy Briefs
November 11, 2014
On November 6, the Wall Street Journal reported that in mid-October, U.S. President Barack Obama sent Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a secret letter. The Journal said the letter stressed that any cooperation against Islamic extremists operating in Iraq and Syria would depend on reaching a nuclear deal with Iran. Also last week, the...
Policy Briefs
November 4, 2014
Last week, the United States uttered the clearest statement so far of its aims for a nuclear deal with Iran. In an interview on October 30, U.S.
Policy Briefs
October 28, 2014
As the present nuclear talks with Iran slipped into their final month, U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman warned that the world would blame Iran if the talks failed. In a speech on October 23, Under Secretary Sherman said that Iran had been offered “a number of ideas that are equitable, enforceable, and consistent with Tehran’s expressed...
Policy Briefs
October 21, 2014
Yet another round of nuclear talks with Iran ended last week, with the parties in deadlock on essential points. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spent six hours in talks in Vienna on October 15, where he met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. In addition to the stalemate in...
Policy Briefs
October 14, 2014
On October 7-8, Iran refused once again to answer questions from the International Atomic Energy Agency about research with possible nuclear weapon applications, including alleged work on the initiation of high explosives and studies on neutron transport calculations. These were two out of the five “practical measures” that Iran had agreed to...