News stories by Ali Gharib, page 2

Last summer, a tight consensus formed in Washington around Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s plans to build up state-like institutions in the West Bank and revive the territory’s sagging economy from the lingering effects of the Second Intifada.

A group of U.S. experts ranging from former top diplomats to non-proliferation specialists is praising the recent deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey on Iran's nuclear programme as a potential 'first step' towards ratcheting down tensions between the West and the Islamic Republic.

In a surprisingly swift move on Thursday night that could have wide-ranging implications, the U.S. Senate passed a bill containing broad unilateral sanctions to punish foreign companies that export gasoline to Iran or help expand its domestic refinery capabilities.

A raid by Iraqi security forces on a camp of Iranian dissidents is widely seen as a sign that Iraqi authorities are establishing their independence as the U.S. occupation winds down – and tilting instead towards Iran.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is stuck between a rock and a hard place in its Iran policy. On the one hand, the recent unrest will take time to percolate into a reformed Islamic Republic. On the other, time is in short supply if the U.S. hopes to stop Iran progress toward a nuclear weapons capability.

In 2007, after eight months of detention in Iran – four in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison – Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari returned to the U.S. and held a press conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, where she directs the Middle East Programme.

After its May trip to Saudi Arabia recently garnered attention, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has come under a hailstorm of criticism by defenders of Israeli policy who claim that the trip raises ethical questions about HRW's work in the Middle East.

Seeking to end speculation about whether his administration had eased its opposition to an Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday insisted that Washington's position remained unchanged.

A new survey of global opinion reveals strong negative feelings toward U.S. foreign policy, even as an average of 61 percent of those polled have at least some confidence in President Barack Obama to make sound decisions.

After months of planning and putting pieces in order, aspects of the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan are beginning to be concretely implemented – including a surge of troops and attempts to curtail the poppy trade that allegedly funds insurgents.