Monday, March 7, 2016

UN Passes Toughly Worded Piece of Paper Against North Korea

By Joseph Klein

The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on March 2nd that imposes tough new sanctions and tightens some of its existing measures against North Korea (the DPRK). Resolution 2270 (2016) is the Security Council’s strongest response to date to the rogue North Korean regime’s ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile-related test activities in violation of a series of prior Security Council resolutions. The triggering events leading up to this latest resolution were North Korea’s January 2016 nuclear test and February rocket launch. These provocations were too much even for China, North Korea’s closest trading partner, which cooperated constructively with the United States to reach consensus on the resolution’s text after several weeks of negotiations. [more...]

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Iranian Elections - The “Reformers” Didn’t Win

By Joseph Klein

Iran held an election last week to fill seats in its clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts, which would select Ayatollah Khamenei’s successor as Supreme Leader, as well as seats in Iran’s parliament.  Focusing on victories over hardliners in the capital city of Tehran, the results are being hailed in the Iranian “reformist” circles as "Tehran's Spring."  So-called “reformists and moderates” who support President Hassan Rouhani and strategized together to defeat the hardliners, are crowing. And as the BBC reported, President Rouhani has sought to portray the results as a mandate to continue his policies of trying to reduce Iran’s international isolation. "It's time to open a new chapter in Iran's economic development based on domestic abilities and international opportunities," he said last Saturday. [more...]