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From a non-proliferation perspective, the Iran nuclear deal is a good one provided it is complied with. A lot will depend on Iran?s adherence to the commitments under the deal but it is difficult to have much faith in Iranian commitments because of its repeated failures in the past. And, from a regional security perspective, the deal is disastrous.

The American justification that delaying any possible Iranian nuclear weapon programme is itself a benefit might be short-sighted because the balance of power will have shifted in Iran?s favour by then.

Iran is critical for stabilising India's northwestern marches, providing access to Central Asia and in meeting India's future energy needs. The pursuit of these separate but significant interests in the West Asia is bound to produce multiple contradictions. Managing them will be a great challenge for Indian diplomacy.

After garnering more than 50 percent of the votes, Centrist candidate Hassan Rohani won the presidential election in Iran, receiving 18,613,329 out of 36,740,156 votes.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs has said that Iran will not withdraw from its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Iran has said that uranium enrichment and protection of the rights of the Iranian nation

Iran recently organised the first international conference on 'World against Violence and Extremism (WAVE)' as per the proposal made by President Hassan Rouhani at the UN General Assembly in September. Most significantly, the conference brought together the Foreign Ministers of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen - four of the most troubled states in the region.

Tehran is using the opportunity to send a strategic message to other powers in the region and beyond.

India must continue to remain politically engaged with Tehran despite its partnership plan with China

This year, India's and China's crude oil imports from Iran has risen sharply - up by 43% year-on-year basis and 36% year-on-year basis respectively, according to a Reuters report. World's oil giant companies have also shown interest to return to Iran. Do these indicate that Iran has turned the bend and worst phase of sanctions is over?

But President Rouhani’s challenges, domestically and with the US and Arab neighbours, are just beginning.

On 6 November 2003, US President George W. Bush made an 'excellent¿ and ¿noble¿1 speech (much acclaimed by analysts and the media) at the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy, whereby he launched a new ¿forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East'.

While the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 are on track and when Iran is conceding most of the demands, why should there be an explosion in a crucial Iranian nuclear site, that too a missiles and munitions centre -- Parchin.

Senator John Kerry has been at pains to convince his Iranian counterpart that the Congressional act of voting on April 14 to appropriate to itself the power to reject the final deal is merely symbolic and President Obama can easily over-ride these hurdles. But what it reveals is an ugly side of the Congressmen who still live in a world of 'sanctioning' the rest.

Being a pragmatist, Iranian President Rouhani simply accepted the reality and made a deal, that ensured Iran's respect and dignity and gave relief to his people. His next 100 days will be equally crucial and that may bring about tectonic changes in the region.

A significant thaw is happening in the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Once Saudi Arabia decides to mend its ties with Iran, the US should hardly have any reason to go on punishing Iran. In this scenario, it seems the resolution of Iran's nuclear negotiations is not far off.

The SCO has so far not been a major factor in discussions about Afghanistan's stabilization. But there is a good possibility that Afghanistan will obtain observer status in the SCO. Given the differing agendas of the SCO and the US/NATO, Afghanistan's embrace of the SCO could greatly complicate reconstruction efforts.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is currently investigating Iran's nuclear program, especially the possibility that Pakistan helped it with substantial transfers of technology and materials in the past. There has been no conclusive evidence so far, except for a piece of evidence that Pakistan

Need to put the Iranian nuclear programme in perspective

I read with great interest your article titled "THE COMING WARS: What the Pentagon can now do in secret" carried by the "New Yorker" in its issue dated January 24, 2005, which is already on sale. The article is about US preparations for a possible covert operation against Iran's suspected military nuclear installations set up with Pakistani complicity.

In a prescient view, when the region and the world were still sizing up the Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Xinhua despatch from Teheran featured by People's Daily in early August reported: "The successful play of the class card and religion card at a critical juncture has brought an unknown mayor to the office of the president.

Modalities of statecraft have abiding relevance. In a celebrated letter to Moghul Emperor Akbar, Shah Abbas the Great commented on a predecessor's misrule and said that "internal diversity of opinions made the foreigner covetous and caused anarchy in the country."

There is no doubt that Iranian security policy is now bent on laying out on the table and publicising its entire gamut of strategic and tactical playing cards for all to see

Now, a lot depends on how the fourth Vienna meeting between Iran and the P5+1 goes and whether or not Iran is able to complete the set of actions it has agreed to under the Framework for Cooperation with the IAEA by the May 15 deadline.

The recently concluded fourth Vienna meeting, between Iran and P5+1, has revealed that Iran and the international community will have to cross the major hurdles for the successful conclusion of a comprehensive nuclear deal.

The unexpected good showing of the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Mayor of Tehran, in the first round of the Iranian Presidental elections held on June 17, 2005, and his emergence in the No.2 position with 19.5 per cent of the valid votes polled as against 21 per cent for the favourite Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani throws open the possibility that in the second

In voting for a moderate President, Iranians have demonstrated their desire to overcome continued political isolation, marked by significant economic deterioration and disappearing democratic accountability. Can Mr. Rouhani overcome challenges and deliver?

Tehran’s bid to redenominate its tumbling rial aims to restore confidence, but without fiscal and structural reform, it risks becoming a cosmetic fix.

Heightened rhetoric about a Western plot, quack remedies and blind faith added to the problem in a nation where senior clerics and politicians have died in the pandemic

A decade ago this month, the United States and its British auxiliaries abused international law by invading Iraq. India looked on helplessly then, but is it in a position to affect another unjust invasion, this time directed at Iran?

Last week the curtains came down on the 21st century's first unjust war - the US involvement in Iraq. But worse may follow after the American pullout. The implications for India of further turmoil in the Persian Gulf, particularly Iraq are enormous.

It may not be the story that Paul Bremer or Iyyad Allawi would want to muse over for their grandchildren: ¿I was among the handful there...¿ Yet, that¿s truth about power-transfer in Iraq, America¿s testing-ground for western democracy in the feudalistic Gulf Arab region living in a decadent past.

Police and Army are perceived to be low . The mercenaries of the Iraqi members of the governing council such as Ahmed Chalabi are better paid. The staff of the Iraqi Police and Army were till recently not entitled to the war hazard allowance. A proposal to grant that allowance even to them was under consideration.

The old colonial borders drawn in the Middle East appear headed for a major overhaul and the fresh re-drawing of the map will set out tremors far beyond the region.

As Iraq heads to elections, voters face a choice: preserve the oil-dependent status quo, risk radical reforms, or embrace populist uncertainty.

A fragile peace process between the Turkish state and the outlawed Kurdistan Worker?s Party (PKK) resulted in the first signs of retreat of PKK rebels as they make their way to Iraq?s Kurdish region.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq in March-April 2003 by a 'Coalition of the Willing' led by the United States was the second part of the response to the outrage conducted by a non-state actor on September 11, 2001. This was perceived in Washington as a gift from history, an opportunity to reshape a region of crucial relevance to the politics and economics of the western world. The impulse for drastic action was greater because notwithstanding

India's interests in Iraq and the region should be seen in the larger context of the seven million Indians working in West Asia, of which nearly 18,000 are in Iraq. Safety and security of this population should dominate the Indian policy.

Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., Commander of the US 82nd Airborne Division ( January 6,2004):"We've turned the corner."

The invasion of Iraq by the ¿Coalition of the Willing¿ was supinely endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 1483 of May 22, 2003. It bestowed legitimacy on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Paragraph 8 of the Resolution, and sub-paragraphs (d) and (e), specifically referred to the work of reconstruction that the Secretary General¿s Special Representative was to coordinate with the CPA. One year later

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki led a landmark cabinet meeting in the country's Kurdish region, in an effort to diffuse tensions between Kurds and the central government, a dispute that is the biggest threat to Iraq's stability.

Nineteen US troops and three others were reportedly killed on December 21, 2004, in an attack on an improvised dining hall of an American military base at Mosul in northern Iraq. An organisation called Jaish Ansar al-Sunnah (JAAS) has claimed responsibility for the attack.