TEHRAN (Reuters) - New U.S. sanctions could push Tehran to rethink its cooperation with the United Nations atomic watchdog, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator said on Friday. read more… »

By Michael Rubin

As relations between Washington and Tehran deteriorate, critics of the Bush administration are seeking to cast blame for the rocky relationship not on Iran’s nuclear program or support of terrorism, but on President Bush’s intransigence. read more… »

By Jefrrey Donovan

With one fell swoop of the U.S. government’s pen, Washington has hit Iran with some of the strongest U.S. unilateral sanctions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, singling out Iran’s Defense Ministry, Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and its elite Quds Force in a move that sharpens the confrontation over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program. read more… »

European Parliament (EP), 24/10/2007; praises Turkey’s renewed commitment to reform, notes remaining areas of concern. While strongly condemning the violence perpetrated by the PKK, and calling on it to declare an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, the resolution “urges the new government to launch a political initiative favouring a lasting settlement of the Kurdish issue.” read more… »

Historically, the Kurdish national movement originated in Turkey from the time when the Ottoman Empire controlled that region. The main rebellion which dominates the history of the Kurds in Turkey is that of the 1925 rebellion in Kurdistan region of Turkey which was led by Sheikh Said. read more… »

PARIS: On Iran, this could be Europe’s moment of truth. France, long viewed as too busy making money in Iran to punish it over its nuclear program, is leading a push under U.S.-friendly President Nicolas Sarkozy and his activist foreign minister to hurt Tehran through its pockets. Britain is another European power that sees tougher sanctions as essential. read more… »

By The Associated Press

Targets of new sanctions against Iran on Thursday, according to a US government fact sheet: read more… »

There is hubris about Iranian behaviour that can be breathtaking. Far from expressing mock horror at Western accusations that Iran is funding Sunni as well as Shia extremists in Iraq, senior Iranian advisers nowadays go out of their way to make explicit their determination to harass and confront the Americans throughout the Middle East. read more… »

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

It’s true that no significant response was given to the threats made by a brigadier general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, declaring that if his country were attacked it would launch 11,000 rockets at enemy bases within the space of a minute. read more… »

Amir Taheri

When Iraq’s neighbours meet next week to discuss the situation there they will be confronted with a simple question: Is the fire that has been burning Iraq since 2003 growing or diminishing ? read more… »