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Iran, the United States and other world powers struck a historic deal Tuesday to curb Iranian nuclear programs and ease fears of a nuclear-armed Iran threatening the volatile Middle East. In exchange, Iran will get billions of dollars in relief from crushing international sanctions. The accord, reached after long, fractious negotiations, marks a dramatic break from decades of animosity between the United States and Iran, countries that have labeled each other the "leading state sponsor of terrorism" and "the Great Satan." "This deal offers an opportunity to move in a new direction," President Barack Obama declared at the White House...

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday criticized Israel’s opposition to the nuclear deal agreed upon by six world powers and Iran, Reuters reported. According to the report, Steinmeier said the agreement would help contribute to security in the Middle East. “This is a responsible deal and Israel should also take a closer look at it and not criticize the agreement in a very coarse way,” he was quoted as having told German broadcaster ARD. …

Russia said Tuesday that it welcomes the agreement reached in Vienna concerning Iran’s nuclear program. “We are certain that the world heaved a sigh of relief today,” an official statement said. “The negotiations supported by the UN Security Council and involving Russia, China, the USA, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iran and the European Union went on for many years. We are satisfied that the solution found is based on the principle of phasing and mutuality which our country has been consistently supporting at every stage of these complicated negotiations. “The IAEA will carefully monitor the implementation of the agreed steps...

The United States may have just lost its best leverage to secure the release of four citizens held in Iran. Monday’s nuclear agreement with Iran includes no provisions for the release of three Americans known to be detained in Iran and a fourth thought to be held captive by the Islamic Republic. […] Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the U.S. side of negotiations for the deal, did address the plight of former Marine Amir Hekmati, Washington Post Iran Bureau Chief Jason Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and ex-FBI Agent Robert Levinson during his press conference announcing the nuke...

“I don't want to just end the war, but I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place.” That was Senator Barack Obama, speaking about Iraq in a 2008 primary debate. For a candidate who had seen his own campaign surge on the strength of his opposition to the Iraq war, it was a near-perfect distillation of the change he hoped to bring to America’s foreign policy discussion, long dominated by hawkish views that were shattering against the bloody reality of Iraq’s civil war. During the 2008 campaign, Obama started—and won—a hugely significant debate...

GWEN IFILL: We return to the news that dominated today, the nuclear deal with Iran. A short while ago, I spoke with Susan Rice, the president’s national security adviser. Ambassador Rice, thank you for joining us. One of our leading allies, Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, today called this deal an historic mistake. Why is he wrong? SUSAN RICE, National Security Advisor: Well, he’s wrong, Gwen, because this is actually a very strong deal that, when implemented, will cut off all of Iran’s potential pathways to a nuclear weapon in a fully verifiable fashion. We will have very intrusive...

Iranian and many world leaders alike are celebrating the deal reached Tuesday over Tehran’s nuclear program as a successful diplomatic effort—as are their respective negotiating teams, whose seemingly never-ending talks have finally come to an end. But the approach by those advocating a deal—which by Obama’s own admission would at best delay Iran achieving nuclear weapons capability by a decade—is the result of a lack of appreciation for the ideology which lies behind the Islamic Republic’s policies, and particularly its increasingly aggressive foreign policy, according to an expert in Islamist ideology. […] In Khomeiniest Shia Islamist ideology—strictly followed by Iran’s...

An Iranian court on Monday issued a ruling fining the United States $50 billion for purported damages against the Islamic Republic and its citizens, according to an announcement by Iran’s Judiciary. Iran claims that the United States is guilty of inflicting “heavy loss and damage” on the country, as well as “killing the Iranian nationals by assisting their enemies,” such as former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency. The ruling charges “the U.S. administration with the payment of a total 50-billion-dollar fine for the losses it has incurred on real and legal entities,” according to...

Israel’s leader says Western powers are “caving” into Iran even as the Islamic Republic keeps railing against them. Responding to the Iranian supreme leader’s call to continue the struggle against the United States regardless of the outcome of nuclear talks, Benjamin Netanyahu says Sunday his country will not accept such a reality. …

A deal has been reached between the world powers and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program after a series of major American concessions, Ehud Yaari, the Middle East affairs commentator for Israel’s Channel 2 television, said Friday night. “It is done. It is done,” he said, and will be signed “early next week.” The aim of the agreement is to put a negotiated end to a 13-year standoff with Iran over its suspect nuclear program and to block its pathway to developing a nuclear bomb in exchange for lifting biting global sanctions. Israel’s leadership has relentlessly opposed the emerging agreement,...

Western planemakers look set to reap billions of dollars in deals with Iran, if a deal is done on its nuclear program to allow one of the world’s most promising aviation markets to come out of quarantine. Iran and six world powers were struggling on Friday to remove the last obstacles to an historic deal in Vienna that could resolve a more than 12-year dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, extending talks through the weekend. For Tehran, the prospect of sweeping economic sanctions and a long-standing U.S. trade embargo being lifted represents a chance to renew a fleet whose average age...

The Zionist entity is desperately trying to hinder a long-awaited nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers, as the talks aimed at clinching the deal entered its final stage. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is once again raising the specter of a bad deal, saying that such deal “will pave Iran's path to a nuclear arsenal." "This deal as far as we can see comes on almost daily concessions from the P5+1 to growing Iranian demands. Every day more concessions are made, and every day the deal becomes worse and worse," Netanyahu said Monday. "I can say that what...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has not been shy about his criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the nuclear negotiations with Iran. Cruz visited MSNBC’s Morning Joe Tuesday to promote his new book A Time For Truth, and he highlighted that Tuesday was the deadline for the nuclear deal that has since been extended to July 9. The negotiations over a nuclear Iran have consumed the past three years and have been continuously extended. “Under this deal, Iran would get a $50 billion signing bonus,” Cruz said. “That money would be used to fund Hamas, to...

As world powers and Iran reach a deadline Tuesday—which may be extended—for talks on the Islamic regime’s nuclear program, Israel is taking steps to prepare for a military strike on Tehran's nuclear facilities so as to defend itself from the impending threat. Iran has refused to allow inspections of its covert nuclear sites and declared it will use advanced centrifuges as soon as a deal is met, meaning the leading state sponsor of terrorism could potentially obtain a nuclear arsenal within weeks, all while getting billions of dollars in sanctions relief through a nuclear deal. The Hebrew-language Walla! reported Tuesday...

Palpably illustrating its indifference to the Arab Christian population’s fate, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) unity government on Tuesday largely brushed off the detailed threat by an Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in Jerusalem to “purify” the city of Christians. The ISIS announcement was posted in the eastern part of the capital city last Thursday, and in it the ISIS affiliate threatened to murder all Christians in the Muslim Arab neighborhoods during the month of Ramadan, starting with Shuafat and on to the Muslim sections of the Old City. It also threatened an attack against the Church of the Nativity located...

The P5+1 countries led by the United States under Barack Obama have caved in to Iranian demands and will not insist on inspections of nuclear installations as part of a deal on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Channel 1 reported Sunday. The channel’s Arab affairs correspondent reported that the June 30—Tuesday night—deadline for the talks has been set back to an unspecified date but that the negotiations are good-natured and the feeling is that the deal is nearly done. …

A document released in late May by pro-Muslim Brotherhood clerics incited the Egyptian population to “strive for the complete elimination” of their current government, according to a new report. Calling the military-backed government a “criminal and murderous regime,” the radical clerics said public figures associated with it should be put to death, in accordance with Sharia law. The document also demands the release of Morsi, who it refers to as the “legitimate elected president.” […] “According to the Sharia, it is the duty of the ummah—its leaders and its people—to oppose this regime and strive for its complete elimination by...

It is one thing to hate Greeks or Turks, for want of example, and quite a different thing to hate Jews. Likewise, to hate this country or that one is not akin to hating Israel. The faultless logic of a felon explains all. Asked why he robbed banks Willie Sutton explained, “That’s where the money is.” Well, Israel is where six million Jews are, and Iran is not the only power that, day and night, aches to wipe them off the face of the earth. Clearly there’s more to hating Israel than meets the eye. By “more” I mean a...

Iran’s support for international terrorist groups remained undiminished last year and even expanded in some respects, the Obama administration said Friday, less than two weeks before the deadline for completing a nuclear deal that could provide Tehran with billions of dollars in relief from economic sanctions. The assessment offered a worrying sign of even worse terror-related violence to come after a year in which extremists in the Middle East, Africa and Asia committed 35 percent more terrorist acts, killed nearly twice as many people and almost tripled the number of kidnappings worldwide. Statistics released by the State Department on Friday...

A Knesset Channel poll published Thursday indicates that almost one half of the Israeli public agrees with MK Michael Oren (Kulanu), the former Israeli ambassador in the US, who said this week that US President Barack Obama has “deliberately” caused a deterioration in US-Israel ties. […] “From the moment he entered office, Mr. Obama promoted an agenda of championing the Palestinian cause and achieving a nuclear accord with Iran,” wrote Oren. Obama abandoned the two core principles of Israel’s alliance with America, he accused. …