News stories by Gareth Porter, page 2

WASHINGTON, Mar 01 (IPS) - The Barack Obama administration has demanded that Iran resolve "past and present concerns" about the "possible military dimensions" of its nuclear programme as a condition for signing a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Tehran.

WASHINGTON, Feb 05 (IPS) - When Western intelligence agencies began in the early 1990s to intercept telexes from an Iranian university to foreign high technology firms, intelligence analysts believed they saw the first signs of military involvement in Iran's nuclear programme. That suspicion led to U.S. intelligence assessments over the next decade that Iran was secretly pursuing nuclear weapons.

WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (IPS) - Iran's pushback against statements by Secretary of State John Kerry and the White House that Tehran must "dismantle" some of its nuclear programme, and the resulting political uproar over it, indicates that tough U.S. rhetoric may be adding new obstacles to the search for a comprehensive nuclear agreement.

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (IPS) - Criticism in the memoirs of former secretary of defence Robert M. Gates of President Barack Obama’s lack of commitment to the Afghan War strategy of his administration has generated a Washington debate about whether Obama was sufficiently supportive of the war.

WASHINGTON, Nov 26 (IPS) - The "first step" agreement between Iran and the United States that was sealed in Geneva over the weekend is supposed to lead to the negotiation of a "comprehensive settlement" of the nuclear issue over the next six months, though the latter has gotten little attention.

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (IPS) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed a crucial detail Thursday about last week's  nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva that explains much more clearly than previous reports why the meeting broke up without agreement.

WASHINGTON, Nov 07 (IPS) - After a drone strike had reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud Nov. 1, the spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council declared that, if true, it would be "a serious loss" for the terrorist organisation.

WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (IPS) - The Washington Post on Thursday reported what it presented as new evidence of a secret agreement under which Pakistani officials have long been privately supporting the U.S. drone war in the country even as they publicly criticised it.

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (IPS) - In an effort to provoke any possible opposition in U.S. political circles to a nuclear deal with Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has returned to exploiting an old claim that Iran is building intercontinental ballistic missiles that could hit the United States.

WASHINGTON, Sep 09 (IPS) - Contrary to the general impression in Congress and the news media, the Syria chemical warfare intelligence summary released by the Barack Obama administration Aug. 30 did not represent an intelligence community assessment, an IPS analysis and interviews with former intelligence officials reveals.