Obama

Iran’s Press TV, quotes Iranian officials as saying they would welcome negotiations with the incoming Obama Administration. The same sources however say that such negotiations will not include any potential for Iran stopping its nuclear programs.
“Iran announces its readiness to talk with the US amid stepped up Israeli efforts to delay high-level discussions between [...]

Israel may be attempting to block, or at a minimum delay, the incoming Obama Administration from engaging in diplomatic discussions with Tehran. According to the English language Iranian news channel, Press TV, many in the Israeli government and the pro-Israel lobby groups, see a danger in these negotiations, particularly before the Iranian election.
“Israel has [...]

Tehran got condemned from  all sides over the last few days in a verbal bombardment on its nuclear program. Firstly, French President Sarkozy said that he could not ‘bring himself to shake the hand or sit across the table in negotiations with someone who wants to wipe Israel off the map’ referring to the Iranian [...]

  Traditional intelligence community wisdom is that many radical Islamic terrorist groups are actively recruiting disaffected Western youths to partake in violence in the hot spots around the world, but a recent investigation by the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) indicates it may well be radicalized Westerners who are importing violence back [...]

  Many philosophers speculate that a person’s view of the world is controlled by a heady mixture of genetics, intellect, education and experience. Obama’s Kenyan heritage may well have an impact on the future of US Foreign Policy. Obama’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was one of the 75,000 Kenyans who fought in Burma during World [...]

NATO took a few diplomatic hits overnight in its efforts in the Afghan war. It had been warned about the devastating effect of the UAV drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). The US pilotless drones have been an effective weapon from NATO’s perspective, but their collateral killing of innocent bystanders may have finally driven a wedge in [...]

From Sydney Morning Herald:
An Australian is among two foreigners confirmed killed in terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai according to a report from the Press Trust of India.
PTI said two foreign nationals, from Japan and Australia, had been confirmed killed and 11 others wounded in the attacks.
From Press Trust of India sources:
Confirming that [...]

  One has to feel sorry to a degree for the President-elect Obama. Much of the US populace (and many others internationally) see him as a potential saviour of the United States. He has been cast, and not of his own volition, as a Christ like figure. It is against such unrealistic expectations that he [...]

Many important things happened last night while the Western world slept, and they all have a common thread - the US was not involved in any of them. In Damascus, the British Foreign Minister and the Syrian President agreed to high level intelligence sharing. Syria has excellent intelligence on the insurgents in Iraq which it [...]

  Mr Howard - nothing like leaving public life with a whimper…
From today’s Sydney Morning Herald:  The Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, has repudiated John Howard’s attack on Barack Obama as al-Qaeda’s candidate of choice for US president. Mr Howard made the outburst in February last year, angering the newly announced presidential candidate and leading to [...]

 
  Interesting piece from Haaretz today: Poll: Only 6% of Americans think U.S. should back Palestinians in peace talks
Only 6 percent of Americans think the United States should stand behind the Palestinians in Middle East peace talks, according to a recent poll of voters conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and [...]

  There appears to be a mini-race in the Middle East at the moment to become a member of the nuclear club. Many analysts believe that this is bacause other countries do not want to lag behind Iran. They are fearful of an uneven balance of power where Iran becomes the dominant regional power. Israel has nuclear power [...]

  ‘A boy without a dream is dangerous,’ is an Arab proverb. It implies that a child denied the right to dream of a future will become embittered and potentially attracted to violent causes. Across the world - from the Sudan to the Congo, from Palestine to Afghanistan and beyond - the world is in danger [...]

    Iran has an objective to be the dominant force in the Arab Middle East. To do this, one of the key determinants is to be the leading figurehead in opposition to the US. When President Bush was in power this was relatively easily achieved. Bush’s policies were universally unpopular in the region. It was simple for Iran [...]

There had been hope that US President-Elect Obama’s victory might act as a catalyst for change in the mired Middle East. Reports from Syria this morning may well be evidence that this could be the case. Sami Mubayed often viewed as an official voice of Syria, wrote this morning that Syria would stand down Hamas and [...]