Gary G. Sick, a former National Security Council adviser on Iran, says an “emerging strategy” is developing that brings the United States, Israel, and Sunni Arab states in an informal alliance against Iran. He does not believe the United States would launch a military attack on Iran at this time because it lacks the military [...]

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Iran is not the only ascendant power in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, its regional rival, has also seen its fortunes rise. Thanks to high oil prices, the country’s gross domestic product has doubled to $350 billion over the past four years. Saudi leaders also face easing pressures from Washington on democracy promotion, due to [...]

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Paris-Tehran-Moscow, 15 March. (IPS) The slap the Russians gave the Iranian clerical-led government on Tuesday was so strong that 24 hours after it had been clapped on their face, no one had dared to react.
“The Iranians have abused of their relations with Russia. They have harmed our image and standing in international community”, an unidentified [...]

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As Palestinian arms build-up continues in Gaza and Lebanon, some Israelis say IDF response is inevitable.
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal said he hopes Israeli forces not only destroy the weapons but remain in Gaza to prevent further weapons smuggling. getty images
The mayor of Sderot, the Israeli development town bearing the brunt of almost daily rocket attacks [...]

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As China has gained economic clout, it has also been more willing to flex its muscles internationally. This has raised skepticism as well as anxieties in Asia and elsewhere regarding its self-proclaimed commitment to “peaceful rising.”
Actually, China’s international activities show “peaceful rising” to be nothing more than camouflage for a hegemonic agenda. For example, its [...]

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Beijing likely to see Japan-Australia pact as U.S.-led attempt to keep it in check.
Japan has signed with Australia only its second bilateral security agreement since the end of World war II, after the one with the United States dating back about half a century. Although the agreement does not commit either party to defend the [...]

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The Los Angeles Times on Monday reported that a Pentagon official told the newspaper that the United States was working on contingency plans in case its surge policy in Iraq fails. The plans call for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in conjunction with increased military training of Iraqi forces. The contingency plan corresponds with [...]

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WASHINGTON — Mohammed Ali Jinnah, one of the founding fathers of Pakistan, would be disappointed with the Pakistan of today.
It is a country with many fault lines, and is in a continuous state of precariousness. It is riddled with sectarianism, extremism, and multiple distortions of Islam. It has a mostly decrepit education system, [...]

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America is and has been flirting with danger. Our country is suffering from a slow death from within. All one has to do is look around to the constant onslaught of far left secular and progressive activism aimed at destroying the traditions of Americans. The veracity to which this is being carried out is in [...]

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FSM Contributing Editor Slater Bakhtavar warns that the United States needs to take a bold, aggressive step before the entire Latin American region is engulfed by the radical left. It is not just the negative sentiment these countries harbor towards the United States that is alarming, but also the alliances they are forging with terror-sponsoring [...]

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Five years ago, I had a conversation with a young Palestinian student who in short precise terms explained how Islam will defeat the West. The conversation opened my eyes to a much larger picture in which Israel plays only a minor role in the Islamic game of conquest. Since then I tried to speak to [...]

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TEL HASHOMER, Israel (UPI) — A government-appointed committee investigating last year`s Lebanon war slightly lifted a heavy veil of secrecy over its thoughts and led some analysts to conclude it was going to shock Israel.
‘They are preparing the public for a bombshell,’ Menahem Hofnung of the Hebrew University`s department of political science told United Press [...]

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The crisis between Russia and Iran regarding the construction of the Iranian nuclear plant at Bushehr worsened this week, as the state-owned Russian company building the reactor announced Monday that the plant would not be launched in September and nuclear fuel will not be delivered to the station this month as earlier planned, due the [...]

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As the capital of the country, Moscow is perhaps the most visited place in Russia. However, not all tourists and city guests may have enough time to visit all worth sightseeings and see all the interesting things that Moscow can offer. In this case, one must know what places of the many it is better [...]

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Nuclear terrorism threatens to wreck nuclear peace, which has lasted 61 years despite the presence of tens of thousands of nuclear missiles around the world, noted Nobel laureate Tom Schelling, one of the key speakers at the conference.
The latest change is that there is no talk of enriching uranium but of the right to enrich [...]

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The Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Sheffer, recently has been quite outspoken regarding the need for a missile shield in Europe. In de Hoop Sheffer’s mind the only real problem is the cost of the weapons, site construction, and the division of that cost among the participating European states.
What is striking is [...]

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March 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. moves against a Macau bank it accused of laundering money for North Korea threaten an agreement with Kim Jong Il’s government to end its nuclear weapons program, China’s Foreign Ministry said.
“We have expressed our deep regret to the U.S. side,”’ ministry spokesman Qin Gang said today in a regular [...]

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March 15 (Bloomberg) — Russia will take “military measures” to counter the U.S. plan to install a missile- defense system in Central Europe and the Caucasus, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said.
“Expansion of that kind into the area which is absolutely right next to our borders is increasing the military potential in that area,” [...]

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The illicit opium poppy industry is, according to a former minister in President Hamid Karzai’s government, “a pyramid structure. If ever there were a management prize for the perfect supply chain,” it would go to what generates from one half to two-thirds of Afghan GDP. He said there are “25 mafia dons at the top [...]

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Hong Kong: Chinese State media announced this week that the country’s aviation industry is working at producing its own large aircraft by the year 2020. According to the Xinhua news agency, the blueprint for the large aircraft project will be completed by 2010.
According to State aviation authorities the aircraft being developed would have a [...]

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