Epstein Secrets

s. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta recently repainted America's red line: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad EFTA_R1_00537945 EFTA02029064 recently reaffirmed his objective: "Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Z

nt years focused on Major General Qassem Soleimani, the enigmatic persona who runs the "handpicked elite of an already elite ideological army," as Stanford University's Abbas Milani described the Qods force. Ali Alfoneh, an Iran scholar specializing in the IRGC at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote that alth

adlines in the past by announcing that American troops should stay in Iraq until 2020, seemed to be hedging his bets. He met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the trip, as well as with top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards. Critics say the White House had a chance to curb Iranian influence bu

keep the regime afloat. KATHRYN STONER-WEISS is Senior Fellow and Deputy Director at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. EFTA_R1_02047589 EFTA02695912

record. Reformist former president Mohammad Khatami spoke of a grand dialogue between civilizations, with little to show for it. Even the firebrand Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, arguably the most divisive figure in Iranian politics since 1979, could not EFTA_R1_02208405 EFTA02722915 make his boldest moves absent approva

outclassed. There is cunning aplenty in Persia, an eye for that exact moment when one's rival has been trapped. Fouad Ajami is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is the author of "The Syrian Rebellion," published by Hoover Press. Article 4. The National Interest Beware the Smiling C