Epstein Secrets

write the president's speech in a way that would have protected us from criticism," said Philip H. Gordon, the coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa on the National Security Council. "We were trying to be honest and realistic." Mr. Gordon took part in the Saturday sessions, along with two of Ms.

aid she briefed Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel over weekly lunches. Some priorities were clear. The election of Hassan Rouhani as president of Iran presents the West with perhaps its last good chance to curb its nuclear program. Mr. Rouhani has a mandate to ease sanctions o

ere clear. The election of Hassan Rouhani as president of Iran presents the West with perhaps its last good chance to curb its nuclear program. Mr. Rouhani has a mandate to ease sanctions on Iran and has signaled an eagerness to negotiate. But other goals appear to have been dictated as much as by pers

ons. For realists and idealists alike, such independence holds tremendous value as the country contends with a fragmenting Middle East, an unstable North Africa, and a contentious Russia, among other challenges. EFTA00707205 Since 1973, OPEC's "oil weapon" has dangled ominously over the U.S. While Americ

nd strategic purpose. Some observers—press photographers, at the very least—were disappointed when President Obama's opportunity to greet President Rouhani personally at the UN in September did not materialize. Mr. Obama's telephone call to Mr. Rouhani as the latter headed for the airport to return to

2708706 [T]he main lesson o= this narrative is that whatever wrongs were done to the Jews of Europe an= later to those of the Arab Middle East and North Africa — and there wer= great wrongs inflicted — the Zionists who came to Palestine to establish a state trampled on the rights of the A=abs who already li

ties and should not be allowe= to ruin the real prospect of the historic deal before us. 12 EFTA_R1_02111350 EFTA02708703 When current Presid=nt Hassan Rouhani and I were leading the Iranian nuclear negotiating team =lmost 10 years ago, just before the election of former president Mahmoud A=madinejad, I pre

many fear, there will not be a smooth transition. If America continues to reduce its role in the Middle East, predicts a former central banker from North Africa, "the next quarter century is ... going to be very, very messy," marked by "disorder more than order." Kishore Mahbubani, a well-known theorist of

and pledge a vigorous economic and military response to any Iranian violation, regional players will render their own judgments. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's "charm offensive" has had a dramatic effect in the West, but no one in the Middle East buys Iran's projection of pacifism. Indeed, Tehran's direc