Iranian police have suddenly and without explanation arrested Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, a known ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Hezbollah was behind a bus attack that killed five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year, investigators said Tuesday, describing a sophisticated bombing carried out by a terrorist cell that included Canadian and Australian citizens.
President Obama will visit Israel, the West Bank and Jordan in the spring, the White House said Tuesday, marking his first visit since becoming president.
The Obama administration and Israeli leadership have stated adamantly that Iran's acquisition of nuclear capability is not an option. The most broadly discussed scenario is one in which Israeli military assets are used in a large, direct assault against Tehran's nuclear facilities and military installations. Notwithstanding this conventional thinking, it seems more likely that another strategy may be more effective and less horrific in the long run.
After taking heat from Republicans for failing to make the trip during his first term in office, President Obama will make his first visit to Israel as president in the coming months, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
Until his confirmation hearings, I had believed that after intensive and harsh questioning, former Sen. Chuck Hagel would be confirmed as President Obama's choice for the next secretary of defense. I do not believe anyone could have anticipated the catastrophic performance of the nominee before the Senate Armed Services Committee while on the international stage ("Panetta defends Hagel, criticizes GOP questioning," Web, Sunday). It was a performance that stunned even officials of the administration.
The latest in a recent string of Iranian announcements on its space program came Tuesday, when the country vowed to launch an astronaut by 2018.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. plans to discuss arms control with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this month in Munich ("Biden to use Obama's postelection 'flexibility' on weapons with Russia," Web, Thursday). The postelection nuclear-disarmament flexibility promised by President Obama to Russia in an open-microphone gaffe in 2012 may now be realized. The way he would accomplish that is through a discussion with Russia. At the same time, Mr. Obama appears to be ignoring the nuclear buildup of communist China and North Korea, and radical Iran.
Sen. John McCain came under fire Monday after posting a tweet that compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the monkey the Iranian government allegedly launched into space last week.
