Epstein Secrets

several years. Like the Arab Spring of the past year, the crumbling of the autocratic status quo in Russia and China will pose major challenges for the United States — the first of which is to recognize what is coming. For the past decade, U.S. policy toward the two countries has been based on EFTA00630409 acc

the most extensive effort to catalog what a nuclear-armed Iran might do outside its borders is a monograph published last year by Ash Jain of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Jain's inventory of possible Iranian nastiness is comprehensive, ranging from strong-arming Persian Gulf states to expanding a strategic relations

and other illicit finance." Acknowledging the difficultly in finding a long-term solution to this economic trouble, Dubowitz and Schanzer argue that the "United States, with the support of Israel, can offer a short-term bailout for Lebanon—but only on the condition that Hezbollah agrees to remove its arsenal of pr

lah" that it does not "care about sectarian differences or religious differences" when it comes to making money. Fernandez, who was speaking at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, added, "We've seen them working with Sunni criminals, Christian criminals — and even with Jewish crime syndicates." Op-Ed: Hezbollah A Key Factor

lowed by fuller agreements. Both Tehran and Washington are downplaying expectations for the May 23 Baghdad negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany). Indeed, the prospects for eventual success are uncertain. If Iran is truly prepared to deal, and if

macy, if anything, even more than they did before," said Dennis B. Ross, one of Mr. Obama's senior advisers on Iran until last year and now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "It's not like they have any other good news right now." Moreover, Mr. Ross said, Iran's recent statements signal that its leaders are preparing

ven the historical record, risks bloody anarchy. And a transitional phase may require an implicit deal between the United States and Iran. Iran and the United States have a record of dealing with each other behind the scenes; the Bush administration and the ayatollahs did likewise in Iraq even as they fought eac

utility of the sanctions policy and the exemptions granted to China, India and other countries in Asia. Patrick Clawson, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), laid out a detailed argument explaining why economic sanctions won't work, and he concluded bluntly that success "may require a profound s

trategy, or more weapons for Israel, show no greater U.S. resolve. Finally, asking what Israel needs if it uses force only reinforces the view that the United States will not do so. Almost simultaneously, the former head of Israeli military intelligence Gen. Amos Yadlin weighed in. In an interview with the Times

to the exhortations by former U.S. State Department and White House official Dennis Ross — a stalwart of the pro-Israel scene from his post at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy — that the United States should withhold financial aid from Egypt if it violates the Camp David peace treaty with Israel (because Cairo is sending