In The News

Iran's Secret Quest for the Bomb

Leonard S. Spector May 16, 2003
Another spat between the US and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) may be brewing. When the agency's board meets next month, Washington hopes to get it to strongly condemn Iran for its clandestine effort to develop nuclear weapons - something that the agency is reportedly loath to do. In this article, non-proliferation expert Leonard S. Spector explains the background....

The Essential Agenda

Osama El-Ghazali Harb May 16, 2003
Would granting aid to Iraq now appear as if Egypt and other Arab countries support the Anglo-American occupiers of Iraq? Most Arabs considered the war on Iraq unjustified, says this opinion article from Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly. But at the same time, they also agreed that Saddam Hussein needed to be brought down. In response to his critics, Egyptian scholar Osama El-Ghazali Harb argues that...

Powell Says Attacks Bear Hallmark of Al-Qaeda

Judy Dempsey May 13, 2003
Three suicide attacks on compounds where foreigners live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed at least seven Americans and injured over 100 more on Monday night. US Secretary of State Colin Powell says the attacks appear to be the work of Al-Qaeda, the group responsible for attacks in the US on Sept. 11, 2001. Officials in Jordan, however, worry that the attacks are more directly related to the...

A Trusteeship for Palestine?

Martin Indyk May 12, 2003
Worrying that US President Bush’s "road map" agenda for the end to the Israel-Palestine conflict will fall through, Martin Indyk, the former US ambassador to Israel, and other members of the Saban Center's Israeli-Palestinian Workshop have proposed an alternative solution. They suggest a three-year international governing force in Palestine, headed by the UN, IMF, WTO, and various...

Seven Nuclear Sites Looted

Barton Gellman May 10, 2003
Seven nuclear facilities in Iraq were heavily damaged or destroyed by mass lootings that began with the arrival of US ground forces in Iraq in April. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and U.N. resolutions, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has the sole legal authority to carry out inspections of the nuclear sites. But all that changed with the Iraq War. IAEA has even had...

In the Absence of Will

Ibrahim Nafie May 9, 2003
The rapid success of the US in the Iraq War shocked many in the Arab world, says this article in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly. But what are the lessons to be learned? Commentator Ibrahim Nafi writes that Arab unity cannot emerge by simply updating old agreements. What's required, he says, is genuine, active engagement with the needs of Arab people as a whole, and that must start with...

New U.S. Concerns on Iran's Pursuit of Nuclear Arms

Steven R. Weisman May 8, 2003
After having dealt with one of the “Axis of Evil” countries Washington is now focusing on the other two- Iran and North Korea. While North Korea’s public threat about its nuclear program has got it the world’s spotlight, the US is concerned that Iran’s quiet work on its nuclear weapon program is not receiving sufficient attention. Iran’s clandestine effort to build a large uranium enrichment...