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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump must not fall for Iran's nuclear shell game
Team Trump has a growing Iranian problem. Tehran's latest purported nuclear offer — a farcical proposal to pause uranium enrichment for a year in exchange for the release of Iranian frozen funds and Washington's recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium for civilian and energy purposes — is an obvious strategic non-starter for both the U.S. and Israel. As Freedom for the Defense of Democracies President Mark Dubowitz posted on X, 'Do [the Iranians] think we're that stupid?' Apparently so. Despite President Trump's assertion that talks between Iran and the U.S. might produce 'good news' this week, it is clear Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is intent on playing him for the fool. Iran has been allowed to play this dangerous nuclear shell game for far too long. It has proven repeatedly that it cannot be trusted, and Israel is done playing Iranian games. The White House must forcefully push back and disabuse Tehran of the notion that Trump can be played or that a slightly revised present-day rehash of the ill-advised Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran is even remotely acceptable. Iran's strategic objective is apparent. Tehran is hell-bent on retaining its uranium enrichment capacity — a rapidly growing capacity that we have repeatedly warned would permit Iran to immediately produce five nuclear weapons within one week and exponentially many more nukes thereafter given Tehran's substantial centrifuge capacity to spin 90 percent weapons-grade highly enriched uranium. Yet Iran's nuclear shell game is becoming even darker. It is no longer simply the ultimate manifestation of Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' war against Israel. Rather, it is now also Tehran's key staying card in Russian President Vladimir Putin's 'Axis of Evil.' To preserve its status in both — especially given Iran's growing strategic standing with Putin as a primary supplier in his 'Arsenals of Evil' — Tehran is desperate to find ways to buy time to thwart any U.S. or Israeli military strikes against its nuclear weapons program. Enter Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. His two-day state visit to Muscat, Oman earlier this week was a multifaceted attempt to do just that. Accompanied by Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, Pezeshkian met with Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, the Sultan of Oman, ahead of a proposed sixth round of nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Pezeshkian's regional Middle East gambit is to persuade Oman — who is serving as a negotiating mediator between the U.S. and Iran (and negotiated the U.S.-Houthi rebel ceasefire) — to sanction Iran's proposal to freeze uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief and U.S. recognition of Tehran's right to enrich uranium going forward. One of Pezeshkian's main regional goals is to obfuscate the issue of uranium enrichment. Earlier, in mid-May, in the lead up to his state visit to Oman, Tehran proposed that Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and other interested countries in the Persian Gulf region form a nuclear consortium to enrich uranium for commercial purposes. Uranium enriched at levels below 5 percent — the amount required for hospital equipment and medical experiments — would be produced under the supervision of Iranian engineers. Iran's goal is obvious — to obtain the backing and support of fellow Gulf States. Although their interests in procuring low-enriched uranium are legitimate, the Sunni Arab Gulf states are not likely to sign on to Tehran's proposal. First, it would put Doha, Dubai and Riyadh in direct conflict with Washington's zero-enrichment negotiating position. Second, it would potentially put them in Israel's crosshairs, should any Iranian-controlled production facilities be physically located in their countries. Intentionally or no, Israel sent a message to Iran and the Gulf States during Pezeshkian's visit that it was a bad idea when it again struck Houthi targets in Yemen — Oman's neighbor in southwest Arabia. To underscore the point, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forcefully declared that 'Iran is responsible' for aggression against Israel from Yemen. Notably, there was an even darker transregional element to Pezeshkian's meetings in Oman. While he was meeting with the Sultan, Iran was also slated to participate in an 'Axis of Evil' military summit being hosted in Moscow by Sergei Shoigu, the former Russian defense minister. Military and security officials from North Korea and Iran were in attendance. Disconcertingly, the United Arab Emirates was in attendance as well. That meeting in Moscow is a timely reminder that Russia has a vested interest in disrupting any nuclear negotiations between Washington and Iran. It is also working to deter any U.S. military action against Tehran and its nuclear, ballistic missile or drone production facilities spread out throughout the country. Khamenei, presently, is a key supplier of ballistic missiles and drones to Moscow – the importance of which was recently underscored when Iran's parliament recently approved a 20-year strategic partnership with Moscow. Iran is doing its best to leverage its relationship with Putin to safeguard its nuclear ambitions. They are connected in that Trump's Special Envoy Steven Witkoff is negotiating this and the Russian ceasefire deal in Ukraine. That pact, notably, comes on top of a free trade agreement that went into effect in mid-May under the auspices of the Eurasian Economic Union. Israel sees all of this for what it is: a highly dangerous nuclear shell game being played against Jerusalem and Washington by Tehran and Russia. Significantly, it is equally clear that Israel is likely nearing a military strike on Iran's nuclear weapons program as evidenced by Trump's acknowledgement on Wednesday that he asked Netanyahu to wait. The Israeli prime minister is short on patience with Iran these days given its support for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels. It is time Team Trump saw this the same way and with the same level of clarity. Tehran, like its Russian ally, is attempting to play him for a fool. The White House needs to send a clear message to Khamenei, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and by extension Putin and his 'Axis of Evil' allies, including China, that Washington is nobody's fool. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan E. Sweet served 30 years as an Army intelligence officer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump must not fall for Iran's nuclear shell game
Team Trump has a growing Iranian problem. Tehran's latest purported nuclear offer — a farcical proposal to pause uranium enrichment for a year in exchange for the release of Iranian frozen funds and Washington's recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium for civilian and energy purposes — is an obvious strategic non-starter for both the U.S. and Israel. As Freedom for the Defense of Democracies President Mark Dubowitz posted on X, 'Do [the Iranians] think we're that stupid?' Apparently so. Despite President Trump's assertion that talks between Iran and the U.S. might produce 'good news' this week, it is clear Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is intent on playing him for the fool. Iran has been allowed to play this dangerous nuclear shell game for far too long. It has proven repeatedly that it cannot be trusted, and Israel is done playing Iranian games. The White House must forcefully push back and disabuse Tehran of the notion that Trump can be played or that a slightly revised present-day rehash of the ill-advised Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran is even remotely acceptable. Iran's strategic objective is apparent. Tehran is hell-bent on retaining its uranium enrichment capacity — a rapidly growing capacity that we have repeatedly warned would permit Iran to immediately produce five nuclear weapons within one week and exponentially many more nukes thereafter given Tehran's substantial centrifuge capacity to spin 90 percent weapons-grade highly enriched uranium. Yet Iran's nuclear shell game is becoming even darker. It is no longer simply the ultimate manifestation of Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' war against Israel. Rather, it is now also Tehran's key staying card in Russian President Vladimir Putin's 'Axis of Evil.' To preserve its status in both — especially given Iran's growing strategic standing with Putin as a primary supplier in his 'Arsenals of Evil' — Tehran is desperate to find ways to buy time to thwart any U.S. or Israeli military strikes against its nuclear weapons program. Enter Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. His two-day state visit to Muscat, Oman earlier this week was a multifaceted attempt to do just that. Accompanied by Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, Pezeshkian met with Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, the Sultan of Oman, ahead of a proposed sixth round of nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Pezeshkian's regional Middle East gambit is to persuade Oman — who is serving as a negotiating mediator between the U.S. and Iran (and negotiated the U.S.-Houthi rebel ceasefire) — to sanction Iran's proposal to freeze uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief and U.S. recognition of Tehran's right to enrich uranium going forward. One of Pezeshkian's main regional goals is to obfuscate the issue of uranium enrichment. Earlier, in mid-May, in the lead up to his state visit to Oman, Tehran proposed that Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and other interested countries in the Persian Gulf region form a nuclear consortium to enrich uranium for commercial purposes. Uranium enriched at levels below 5 percent — the amount required for hospital equipment and medical experiments — would be produced under the supervision of Iranian engineers. Iran's goal is obvious — to obtain the backing and support of fellow Gulf States. Although their interests in procuring low-enriched uranium are legitimate, the Sunni Arab Gulf states are not likely to sign on to Tehran's proposal. First, it would put Doha, Dubai and Riyadh in direct conflict with Washington's zero-enrichment negotiating position. Second, it would potentially put them in Israel's crosshairs, should any Iranian-controlled production facilities be physically located in their countries. Intentionally or no, Israel sent a message to Iran and the Gulf States during Pezeshkian's visit that it was a bad idea when it again struck Houthi targets in Yemen — Oman's neighbor in southwest Arabia. To underscore the point, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forcefully declared that 'Iran is responsible' for aggression against Israel from Yemen. Notably, there was an even darker transregional element to Pezeshkian's meetings in Oman. While he was meeting with the Sultan, Iran was also slated to participate in an 'Axis of Evil' military summit being hosted in Moscow by Sergei Shoigu, the former Russian defense minister. Military and security officials from North Korea and Iran were in attendance. Disconcertingly, the United Arab Emirates was in attendance as well. That meeting in Moscow is a timely reminder that Russia has a vested interest in disrupting any nuclear negotiations between Washington and Iran. It is also working to deter any U.S. military action against Tehran and its nuclear, ballistic missile or drone production facilities spread out throughout the country. Khamenei, presently, is a key supplier of ballistic missiles and drones to Moscow – the importance of which was recently underscored when Iran's parliament recently approved a 20-year strategic partnership with Moscow. Iran is doing its best to leverage its relationship with Putin to safeguard its nuclear ambitions. They are connected in that Trump's Special Envoy Steven Witkoff is negotiating this and the Russian ceasefire deal in Ukraine. That pact, notably, comes on top of a free trade agreement that went into effect in mid-May under the auspices of the Eurasian Economic Union. Israel sees all of this for what it is: a highly dangerous nuclear shell game being played against Jerusalem and Washington by Tehran and Russia. Significantly, it is equally clear that Israel is likely nearing a military strike on Iran's nuclear weapons program as evidenced by Trump's acknowledgement on Wednesday that he asked Netanyahu to wait. The Israeli prime minister is short on patience with Iran these days given its support for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels. It is time Team Trump saw this the same way and with the same level of clarity. Tehran, like its Russian ally, is attempting to play him for a fool. The White House needs to send a clear message to Khamenei, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and by extension Putin and his 'Axis of Evil' allies, including China, that Washington is nobody's fool. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan E. Sweet served 30 years as an Army intelligence officer.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Reagan admin official who helped America defeat communism dead at age 83
Michael A. Ledeen, a major American historian and intellectual, died after suffering a series of small strokes on Sunday at his daughter's house in Texas. He was 83 years old. Ledeen was a vigorous participant in contributing to the demise of the communist Soviet Union and its Iron Curtain allies in Eastern Europe. Ledeen served as a special advisor on terrorism to President Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, Alexander Haig, and later worked as a consultant for the National Security Council. Writing for the Asia Times, author and journalist David P. Goldman argued that Ledeen's "personal contribution to America's victory in the Cold War is far greater than the public record shows." Goldman noted that the Reagan administration, in 1983, sent Ledeen, a scholar of Italian history and fascism, to meet Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi to convince the Italian leader to allow the U.S. to deploy Pershing missiles to counter rising Soviet jingoism. Goldman added, "The incident reflects the high trust that Ledeen commanded in the Reagan administration and the strategic role that he played." Trump Says Us Has Given Iran Proposal For Nuclear Deal After Italy accepted the Pershings, the then-Social Democratic German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who was reluctant for his nation to be first to house Pershing missiles, agreed to Reagan's demand. Leeden was a fan of former anti-communist American philosopher Sidney Hook, who declared during the Cold War that "Freedom is a fighting word." Read On The Fox News App Ledeen would take his hard-charging world view against a new set of U.S. enemies after the ground zero of communism was defeated: radical Islamism in Iran, North Korea's totalitarian regime, and Arab and Latin American despots bent on the eradication of the U.S. In 2003, while working as the resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, Ledeen wrote about former President George W. Bush's Axis of Evil (Iran, North Korea and Iraq), "Most commentators ridiculed the very idea of the Axis of Evil, just as they laughed at Reagan's description of the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire. The deep thinkers laughed at Reagan, and then somberly warned that such language was not only misguided but provocative, as if the Kremlin would be more aggressive as a result of the president's speech." Ledeen stressed the importance of American leadership breeding inspiration among dissidents trapped in totalitarian systems: "The greatest of the Soviet freedom fighters, from [Vladimir] Bukovsky to [Natan] Sharansky, have since written about the surge of hope they felt when they saw that the American president understood why they were fighting." He would bring his same intellectual freedom toolkit to his principal worry in this century: the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ledeen garnered enormous respect and praise from Iranian dissidents seeking to dissolve the theocratic regime in Tehran, the world's worst state-sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department. His wife, Barbara, told Fox News Digital about her late husband, "My only regret is that he didn't outlive the regime." Iran's Long Trail Of Deception Fuels Skepticism Over New Nuclear Deal As Talks Continue Leeden did not advocate military intervention in Iran. He was in the business of replicating Reagan's anti-Soviet playbook for Iran's clerical regime. He told Fox News Brit Hume in 2005 that "the Western world, and in particular the United States" needs to support political prisoners in Iran and demonstrations against the regime. He told Hume, "We should be giving money to the various ... Farsi-language broadcasters, some here, some in England, some in Sweden and so forth, some in Germany, to go on the air and share with the Iranian people the now-demonstrated techniques for a successful, nonviolent revolution." He coined the phrase "Faster, please!" for his widely read blog at PJ Media to denote the great urgency to dismantle America's enemies and stop Islamist-animated terrorism. Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, paid tribute to Ledeen in a post on X. He wrote in part, "Michael's understanding of the American people and the Jewish people formed the basis of his abiding faith in the future of America and Israel and in our enduring alliance and friendship." Ledeen was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and authored numerous books on national security, including "Perilous Statecraft: An Insider's Account of the Iran-Contra Affair." He earned a Ph.D. in history and philosophy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His academic advisor at Wisconsin was the prominent historian George Mosse, who fled Nazi Germany because of antisemitism. Ledeen cultivated a new generation of academics, journalists, think tank scholars and authors at his Chevy Chase home. His residence became a kind of informal salon for intellectuals and foreign policy types who had freshly arrived in Washington, D.C. He was also a top-level bridge player and won a national championship, the Truscott/U.S.P.C. Senior Teams. He is survived by his wife, a daughter, Simone, who served as a deputy assistant secretary of defense during the first Trump administration, and his two sons, former Marine Corps officers Gabriel and article source: Reagan admin official who helped America defeat communism dead at age 83
Al Jazeera
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
United States is no longer a safe destination for international students
One cannot underestimate the precarity that orders the lives of international students in the United States. I remember making my maiden journey from Kolkata to upstate New York as an international student to pursue an undergraduate degree at a small liberal arts college. This was back in 2003 when the US-led so-called 'war on terror' was in full swing. The US had invaded Iraq only a few months before my arrival in New York. Be it the on-campus jingoism inspired by America's battle against the 'Axis of Evil' that left little room for critical assessments of US foreign policy in the classroom, the 'random' airport security checks at airports or the near-consistent racism and Islamophobia on the American airwaves – it was soon painfully apparent to me that someone who 'looked like me' didn't belong in the 'Land of the Free'. In the years since, things hardly got any better for international students making their way to America. They remained untrustworthy and unwelcome outsiders in the eyes of many Americans, and the sense of precarity surrounding their lives persisted. Under Trump 2.0, however, this sense of precarity has reached unprecedented levels. In fact, these days the US appears to be not only unwelcoming, it is a blatantly unsafe destination for international students. Trump has made the lives of international students much more difficult than before. This did not come as a surprise, as he had promised to do just that on the campaign trail, well over a year ago. Besides claiming that universities and various accreditation bodies were dominated by Marxists and radical leftists, he made his particular hatred for Palestine solidarity activists on campus well-known. He declared that, if re-elected, he would revoke the student visas of 'radical, anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners' participating in pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses as early as October 2023. After his return to the White House, he made targeting pro-Palestine international students and faculty a priority. One of his highest-profile targets was Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate. Khalil, who was on the front lines of Columbia's pro-Palestine protests as a negotiator between the student protesters and university leadership, is a green card holder. However, the Trump administration is pushing to deport him, claiming that he was engaging in pro-Hamas, un-American activities. Khalil was abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from his home in New York in front of his pregnant American wife in early March, and has been held at a detention facility in Louisiana for over a month. In a similar case, Tufts University PhD student and Turkish citizen Rumeysa Ozturk was abducted by masked, plain-clothed officers in Boston. She, too, was transferred to the detention facility in Louisiana. Her crime? Co-authoring an op-ed in Tufts Daily calling for her university to divest from Israel. Indian citizen and Georgetown University postdoctoral scholar Badar Khan Suri has also been targeted for deportation and is faced with an uncertain future at an ICE detention facility in Texas. Suri didn't even participate in any Palestine solidarity protests. His crime seems to be that he is the son-in-law of a former adviser to the Hamas government in Gaza, Ahmed Yousef. Yousef, however, left the position in the political wing of Hamas more than a decade ago and has called the group's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 'a terrible error'. Then there is the case of Cornell University PhD candidate Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia. He participated in Palestine solidarity protests and was called upon by immigration authorities to surrender. After going into hiding for two and half weeks in fear for his personal safety, Taal decided to leave the US. These few high-profile cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The Trump administration has revoked the visas of hundreds of international students for their pro-Palestine activism and social media posts. As of April 10, more than 600 international students in over 100 colleges and universities across the country are believed to have been affected. And there seems to be no end in sight. The Department of Homeland Security has begun screening the social media accounts of non-citizens and says it will deny visas and green cards to all individuals it deems as having participated in pro-Palestine activism or, as the Trump administration deems it, 'anti-Semitic activities'. America's leading universities, meanwhile, appear more than willing to capitulate to Trump's demands, and are throwing their international students to the wolves, to stay on the good books of the administration and keep federal funding. Columbia University, for instance, quickly caved when the Trump administration decided to withhold $400m in federal funding due to the university's supposed inaction during the Palestine solidarity protests. Despite sitting on an endowment valued at just under $15bn, Columbia's leadership responded to Trump's funding threats by overhauling the university's protest policies and introducing new security measures that would swiftly crack down on any possible return of Palestine solidarity encampments and protests on the campus. The Trump administration also demanded that Columbia's Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department be placed on academic receivership for five years. Typically, academic receivership involves internal processes and measures implemented by the university leadership to bring a dysfunctional department or programme 'back on track'. Seemingly agreeing to Trump's demands, the university appointed a new senior vice provost to oversee the department. Harvard University – another institution with a massive endowment – faced similar demands from the Trump administration in return for federal funding. Specifically, its leadership was asked to make 'necessary changes' to 'address bias, improve viewpoint diversity and end ideological capture' in 'programs and departments that fuel antisemitic harassment'. Unlike in the case of Columbia, there was no mention of specific programmes or departments. But it would seem that the Harvard leadership knew what Trump meant. Harvard's interim dean of social sciences David M Cutler dismissed the leadership of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He justified his decision by claiming that there was 'a lack of balance and multiple viewpoints in the Center's programming on Palestine'. Harvard also severed its ties with the Palestinian Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank. The ways in which the leaders of America's elite universities capitulated to Trump's demands demonstrated clearly that these institutions no longer view broadening the intellect and vision of future generations as their primary purpose. Indeed, they proved that these universities are no longer independent institutions of higher education committed to the betterment of humanity's collective future, but merely businesses that provide a product (ie, a college degree) to a paying client (ie, the student). It is therefore not at all surprising that university leaders decided to abandon international students to their fates when they made the calculation that these students are costing the 'business' more money (in federal funding) than they personally contribute in tuition fees. The Trump administration's attacks on foreign students over pro-Palestinian activism came alongside a simultaneous crackdown on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which had made American universities a bit more welcoming to foreign students from marginalised and minority backgrounds over the years. Taken together, these policies swiftly turned American campuses into hostile environments for foreign students, especially for those hailing from the Global South. In view of all of this, it would seem that the lives of international students in the US have become simply too precarious to bear. There is no guarantee that the Trump administration's crackdown would remain limited to pro-Palestinian speech and protests. A precedent has been set. Every international student in America today must accept that they may be abducted, detained and deported at any moment for attending a protest, writing an article or expressing a view that upsets the White House or its allies. They can even be detained and threatened with deportation due to the past employment of a relative. There seems to be no meaningful legal recourse or political respite in sight. Future international students would therefore be prudent to wonder: is a higher education in the United States worth the risk? The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Captured Chinese fighters show Kremlin-Beijing ties, Lithuania says
Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said she is not surprised by Ukraine's claim that two Chinese soldiers were captured fighting alongside Russian forces. "China's very active involvement in supporting Russia – both financially, politically and in other ways – should leave no doubt about China's role, its goals, and the effectiveness of this team of the Axis of Evil," she said in Vilnius. If confirmed, the incident would be another "illustrative example" of Kremlin-Beijing cooperation, she added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had captured two Chinese citizens fighting with the Russian army. He also published a video with images of one of the prisoners. The capture took place in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, he said. Beijing has dismissed Zelensky's claim that there were a substantial number of Chinese citizens fighting for Russia.
