LyrArc Article Gist
Hard liners in the Iranian parliament include Hamid Rasaee and Ali Taheri, and other members from the days of president Ahamdinejad. In the media this includes Hosssein Shariatmadari, editor of newspaper Kayhan. They oppose any concessions in nuclear negotiations by Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, and any cooperation with the U.S. on issues related to Syria and Iraq. As negotiations face another deadline of March 25, 2015, Israel and the U.S. Congress are pushing for a ratcheting up of sanctions, while the Obama administration seeks more time to complete negotiations. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamanei has urged conservative critics to avoid discussion of negotiations, also setting low expectations for settlement.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Obama administration makes the decision on June 13, 2013, to supply arms to Syrian opposition forces to the Assad regime and enforce a limited no-fly zone inside Syria. The decision comes as forces of the Assad regime make gains over poorly armed opposition forces and threaten the Syrian opposition's base in the city of Aleppo.

LyrArc Article Gist
Lt. General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the new defense minister appointed by President Morsi in Egypt, has close ties with U.S. officials. His ties to the U.S. go back to the basic infantry training course he took at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1981. This marks a shift to a younger generation in the military from the aging military leaders of the Mubarak period, and was achieved by consensus so that the military could continue to maintain its privileges and the elected President Morsi could assume control of running the country. This was peceded by the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta to Cairo, in which he mediated between the different factions to ensure a peaceful and normal transition to democratically elected leaders. It also comes as the U.S. and European allies and Sunni nations in the Middle East are focussing their attention on Iran and the civil war in Syria. For the military in Egypt the situation in Syria could be one more reason to arrive at a rapprochement with the elected civilian government, and Secretary Panetta is likely to have pointed this out to Gen. Tantawi and leaders in the SCAF military body. It shows the considerable diplomatic and leadership skills of Secretary Panetta in helping to bring all sides together on a mutually agreed arrangement. The initiative was left to President Morsi because it was important that this be seen as a return to normal democratic processes by an elected president....

LyrArc Article Gist
The Obama administration announced a policy of increasing the number of refugees accepted in fiscal 2017 to 110,000. This will be an increase from 85,000 in 2016, and 70,000 in the prior 3 years. Secretary of State Kerry says the target is consistent  with the idea that all countries need to do more, and if we could do more we would. After 3 years of cautious policy president Obama now follows Chancellor Merkel's lead.

LyrArc Article Gist
Efforts to repair strained Saudi ties with a visit by U.S. president Obama in March 2014.

LyrArc Article Gist
Dana Milbank points out the real reason Hagel was asked to step down- the reverses in Syria and Iraq. This was not even mentioned in the gathering of officials where the president announced his departure and praised Hagel. Hagel looked weary of the event throughout and must have been relieved to get though it, says Milbank. As even former president Carter says the U.S. acted too slowly, and even Rand Paul calls for aggressive action against the Islamic State, president Obama now has to engage in military action from which he wanted to exit. President Obama looks for a new defense secretary to provide better guidance for the new situation he faces.

LyrArc Article Gist
The British parliament defeated a measure put forward by prime minister Cameron for military response to the chemical weapons attack in Syria in August 2013. The vote against British intervention was 285 to 272 with members of his own party and Liberals voting against the measure. The case put forward by Cameron was based on humanitarian grounds, and to prevent the use of chemical weapons in the future. Under pressure from politicians from all parties Cameron decided to put this to a vote in parliament following a debate on Aug. 29, 2013. In calling for the vote Cameron said he was deeply mindful of the deep concerns about Britain's intervention in Iraq in 2003.

LyrArc Article Gist
Friedman's ambivalent position on the situation in Syria on one hand in a recent op-ed on Israel pointing to the need for the U.S. to concentrate its attention on Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, instead of Bethlehem, Israel; and on the other speaking of the situation being out of control in Syria with the proxy war between Sunni and Shiite. U.S. public opinion and media opinion has consistently supported the struggle for freedom in the Middle East against dictatorial military regimes, yet the Obama adminstration has either followed the lead of France and Britain or acted in a vacillating manner.

LyrArc Article Gist
The NYT editorial in April 2013 supporting a cautious response in Syria as it reports the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government.

LyrArc Article Gist
Iran's Ahmadinejad's speaks to reporters and editors in New York before his address to the UN General Assembly. He says: "During a historical phase, the Israelis come into the picture and are then eliminated." This WSJ editorial finds President Obama's response and his address at the General Assembly of the United Nations inadequate to convince Iran's government and ruling mullahs that the program has to be ended. Sanctions have not produced the needed results and have only gradually been tightened showing a lack of resolve. President Obama failed to speak up for young people and university students in Iran who held demonstrations against the Ahmadinejad regime when it changed the election results- just as he did not speak up for the young people fighting a dictatorship in Libya and Egypt, or just as has failed to do for the young people fighting today in Syria. In this respect Obama has abandoned America's role as a beacon of hope for countries around the world. It is left to American media and public opinion to vigorously express these ideas in unison, as it has already done every step of the way. Clearly Ahmadinejad does not speak for the Iranian people, especially the young generation, and Egypt's president Morsi like every other Arab leader may have problems with Israeli policy but sees the need for peaceful coexistence. It would be more accurate to say that the Iranian people, like the people of Syria, are trapped as Morsi put it to the General Assembly, in "the tragedy of our era," moving from dictatorship to dictatorship....

LyrArc Article Gist
Leon Panetta, former Defense Secretary in Obama's first term, and president Clinton's chief of staff, says president Obama made a series of poor decisions for Iraq and Syria. Not following up on the "red line" of use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime has damaged U.S. credibility, says Panetta. The failure to lead in budget fights, on health care, is seen in foreign policy for Iraq. There Panetta points out Obama failed to lead to ensure that Maliki had to agree to a residual troop presence in Iraq, for without this the hard won gains under the previous Republican administration could easily be allowed to slip away. Sectarian tensions, and rise of ISIS could have been controlled by having U.S. troop presence, according to Panetta. White House centralized power under Tom Donilon, chief of staff, and John Brennan, counter terrorism advisor, to th detriment of input from the Defense Secretary and the Secretary of State, says Panetta. Panetta says Obama lacks fire and too often does not take the lead as a president should. A similiar complaint is made by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, who covered Nixon and Watergate, after observing Obama's dealings with the Republicans and Congress up close in the first term....

LyrArc Article Gist
Gen. Keane and Pletka say action by the U.S. is needed in 2013 to render ineffective the airdefense system and runways used by warplanes of the Assad regime. They emphasize that the U.S. has the technology and capacity to do this even with the Russian systems added in Syria. The lack of a U.S. response in the face of the Assad regime's attacks on civilian populations and use of chemical weapons, the support to the U.S. from the Arab world and Turkey, and the huge refugee problems in Jordan and Turkey, say Keane and Pletka, will lead to creating a worse situation than the relatively small risks of destroying the runways for Assad's warplanes and the airdefense system.

LyrArc Article Gist
The faltering approach on Syria of the Obama administration and the events that lead to the decision on June 13, 2013, to provide arms to the opposition forces.