Reports: Obama paid $1.7 billion ‘ransom’ to Iran for hostages’ release

Reports: Obama paid $1.7 billion ‘ransom’ to Iran for hostages’ release

Special to WorldTribune.com The Obama administration has paid a “ransom” of $1.7 billion in U.S. taxpayers’ funds to Iran for the release of American hostages, critics and Iran officials said. The administration insists the payment was a decades-old legal settlement with Teheran and was not tied to the recent release of five American hostages, according […]

State Dept. reports concrete poured into Arak nuclear reactor, mum on violations

State Dept. reports concrete poured into Arak nuclear reactor, mum on violations

Special to WorldTribune.com Iran has poured concrete into the core of its heavy water reactor at Arak, the U.S. State Department said on Jan. 14. The move is seen as critical to the implementation of the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers and the lifting of sanctions that will free up billions of dollars […]

Bipartisan anger builds in Congress over Iran’s detention of U.S. sailors

Bipartisan anger builds in Congress over Iran’s detention of U.S. sailors

Special to WorldTribune.com Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle expressed outrage over Iran’s detention of 10 U.S. Navy personnel and what was seen as a significant humiliation of the United States due to weak leadership from the Obama administration. “The IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) communicated the message to the domestic and […]

Syria’s fate: Does U.S. prefer Assad’s secular government or a hardline Islamist regime?

Syria’s fate: Does U.S. prefer Assad’s secular government or a hardline Islamist regime?

John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The geopolitical chess game over Syria continues as the world enters autumn with the clouds of war swirling in the Eastern Mediterranean. The civil war which has engulfed Syria since 2011 killing 100,000, and now having crossed President Obama’s proverbial “red line” of chemical weapons use allegedly by the […]

Hang on to that Nobel Appeasement Prize, Mr. President

Hang on to that Nobel Appeasement Prize, Mr. President

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Looks like Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is safe for now. He won’t have to return the bauble he received in 2009 for doing his utmost to curb “nuclear proliferation” and talk nice to Muslims. He can keep the money too. Not too trivial a sum — about […]

Putin’s chess move in Syria, with an eye on the region at large

Putin’s chess move in Syria, with an eye on the region at large

Special to WorldTribune.com By Brian M Downing Shortly after Vladimir Putin and Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to seek a negotiated settlement to the Syrian civil war, the Russian president bolstered his support for the embattled Assad government. Putin announced an impending transfer of anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles to the Syrian military. It was […]

Tail wags the dog: U.S. policy of outsourcing N. Korea crisis to China has failed

Tail wags the dog: U.S. policy of outsourcing N. Korea crisis to China has failed

Special to WorldTribune.com By Parris H. Chang In diplomacy, an inch can be longer than a foot, and the weak can wield greater leverage over the strong. This is why North Korea, a rogue state, impoverished and vulnerable is able to irritate, bully and even threaten the two superpowers, the U.S. and China. For many […]

Obama’s windy words, dovish appointments and lack of resolve

Obama’s windy words, dovish appointments and lack of resolve

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — A mood of collective celebration swept over the American capital as President Barack Obama entered his second term under clear skies in freezing temperatures. It was as though the country were taking a break from fears about the economy, the next “fiscal cliff” and debate on […]