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Obama makes an effort to reach out to Turkey and the Muslim world. He said the U.S. would seek broader engagement based on mutual respect and mutual interest. And added "the US has bee enriched by Muslim-Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country. I know, because I am one of them." Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, and had a step-parent from Indonesia.

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Obama's town hall meeting with Turkish students. In answering aquestion on world peace he said something significant. "It will require young people never to stereotype, assume the worse about other people,. Learning to stand in someone else's shoes to see through their eyes, that's how peace begins, and its upto you to make that happen."

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Saudi Arabia needs current oil price of $60 a barrel to move up to $80 a barrel to balance its national budget. To do this OPEC needs to coordinate its oil production cuts with a group of 10 countries led by Russia that includes Mexico. These countries include countries in the former Soviet Union.  In December cuts of 1.2 million barrels a day were coordinated between the 2 groups to push up oil prices. Now the OPEC cartel plans regular meetings with the Russian led group to push up oil prices. Under a draft document an alliance between the 2 groups would last 3 years and include regular meetings. Earlier Prince Salman led Saudi government proposed replacing OPEC with a new group combining Russia and Saudi Arabia and the other countries in OPEC, yet giving most of the decision making power to Russia and Saudis. This was rejected by Russia and was received poorly by Iraq, Iran  Nigeria, Angola, Algeria. The Iraqis reminded Saudis that OPEC was started in Baghdad. ...

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A second round of talks in Baghdad concludes after the first round in Istanbul, Turkey. No agreement is reached. A third round of talks is planned in Moscow for June 18-19, 2012. The bloc of countries negotiating with Iran is composed of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, known as the P5+1. Talks were led by the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and by Saeed Jalili for the Iranians. Ashton said they had found common ground but significant difference remain.

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Mitt Romney on the weaknesses of America's position in the Middle East in policies for Syria, Libya, Egypt and the rest of the Arab world. The problems with Iran and the lack of results in bringing an end to Iran's nuclear program.

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The British Embassy in Tehran is stormed on Nov. 29, 2011, by protesters from the student wing of the Basij militia, a volunteer militia organized by the Islamic government to protect the governing party loyal to Ayatollah Khamanei. This comes after Britain joined the U.S. and Canada in sanctions against the Iran for nuclear weapons development. The sanctions will keep Iran's banking sector out of the U.K. financial system.

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Michael Boskin, the elder president Bush's chairman of the Council of Economc Advisors was instrumental in setting up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Here he points to the dire need to open up trade between India and Pakistan. Trade today between the two countries is $2.7 billion. Under trade models Boskin says the trade could be 20 times larger, about $50 billion. This would increase benefits and wages in both countries and is badly needed and long overdue.

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Rockets fired by Iran close to the U.S. aircraft carrier U.S.S. Truman in December 2015 could lead to a shift in sentiment in the U.S. following the nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 by the Obama administration. Ballistic missile testing was one of the issues in the negotiations leading up to the nuclear deal with serious differences between Congress and the Obama adminsitration on the issue. Recent ballistic missile tests by Iran may reinforce differences on this issue.

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The 1953 coup that toppled the elected Mossadegh government was supported and attributed to planning by the CIA. During a cold war with the Soviet Union countries in the middle were considered expendable by either side. Added to this was the interest of big oil companies similiar to the Anglo-French response in the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. This still rankles with Iranians. In response to the election of President Obama and his offer for an open discussion the Iranian President Ahmedinejad calls for an apology for that coup and the toppling of an elected government. This led to replacing it with the Shah's monarchy which was overthrown in 1979 after 26 years.

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Differences betwee hardliners such as Ali Zafari, head of the Revolutionary Corps in Iran, and Javad Zarif, the foreign minister in the government of president Rouhani.