“Iran – United States relations” on The Daily Caller

The Obama Administration’s engagement policy toward Iran has failed to defuse the nuclear standoff. Instead, Iran has continued to conceal and lie about its nuclear weapons program in an attempt to stall until it can present the world with a nuclear fait accompli. A nuclear-armed Iran not only will have a dramatically increased ability to threaten its neighbors and U.S. interests, but will also trigger a destabilizing nuclear arms race in the already volatile Middle East. The Administration’s best option is to press both its allies and the U.N. Security Council to impose the strongest possible sanctions on Iran to increase the costs to Iran of continuing its nuclear weapons program. (more)

China has reiterated that continued dialogue is the only way to solve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. (more)

Dazzled by yesterday’s vote on health care, Washington media dropped the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu into the business as usual box. As this column is being posted, Bibi begins his Washington agenda with a visit to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Tonight he dines with Vice President Biden. Tomorrow evening he has the fourth meeting with President Obama since they have been in office. After all this happens, commentators around the world will focus on the recent spat over Israeli housing in the Ramat Shlomo sector of East Jerusalem, and how the prime minister smoothed it over with Washington. But there is an undercurrent in this visit far more significant to the United States and world peace than a mere 1,600 houses. (more)

Had the United States and its European allies acted earlier as promised to impose tougher sanctions against Iran, the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East may not have grown to the dangerous level it has reached today. And if we had acted earlier, President Obama might not find himself in the unenviable position of having to convince the UN Security Council to take seriously the threat of a nuclear Middle East. (more)

Vice President Biden’s visit to Israel last week was the latest in a phalanx of Obama administration officials visiting the region to attempt to resuscitate talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians and conduct a diplomatic offensive against an Iranian regime making steady progress toward a nuclear weapon. (more)

1. Impose and enforce the strongest sanctions. The U.S. should push other concerned countries to enforce targeted sanctions on the Iranian regime and its internal security organs; ban all foreign investment, loans and credits, subsidized trade, and refined petroleum exports to Iran; and deny visas to its officials. (more)

PARIS — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says his country is ready to consider new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. (more)

It’s been nearly a year since Secretary of State Clinton promised “crippling sanctions” on Iran. The U.S. House has passed the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA), and the Senate has passed similar legislation, but congressional leaders have failed to start a reconciliation process. President Obama—enmeshed in domestic policy debates—has done little to hasten the congressional process. (more)

Thirty-one years after revolution brought about an Islamic Republic, Iran is on the threshold of acquiring a nuclear weapon capability—if it chooses to do so. Despite a kinder, gentler U.S. policy of engagement during the past year, there is no credible evidence that the current Iranian regime can be dissuaded from crossing that fateful point to possessing the bomb. (more)

The mounting protests in Iran leave little doubt that the Tehran regime has entered its final decade. The mass expression of public dissent expected today coincides with the day 31 years ago when the Iranian revolution was launched. The Islamist theocracy that resulted commenced a low-intensity war against the United States and our allies, which has continued to this day and could soon get worse. (more)

Everyone has suddenly noticed an elephant in the room: Play the War Card! So right after Daniel Pipes’ column in National Review Online last week, “How to Save the Obama Presidency: Bomb Iran,” pundits from Arnaud de Borchgrave, to Pat Buchanan, to Sarah Palin rushed to approve or disapprove of the idea. They all bring their agendas to the debate, but they all agree a U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would significantly raise Obama’s disastrous approval poll ratings. Like politics, all warfare is domestic. (more)

The Herzliya Conference has become Israel’s foremost policy conference, where the country’s political and security elites meet
with academics and media experts to discuss the balance of Israel’s national security. The prime minister’s speech which concludes the conference has become somewhat of a “state of the union” address where previous prime ministers have announced major policy initiatives. Foreign participants include heads of state, senior diplomats and Nobel laureates. (more)

MINNEAPOLIS — Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested in a television interview Tuesday that Iran would release three jailed U.S. hikers in exchange for Iranians currently serving in American prisons. (more)