Soon after Attorney General Eric Holder announced the arrest of Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar in connection with an alleged Iran-directed plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States, administration officials had harsh words for Iran, but many experts voiced skepticism (NYT). Kenneth Katzman, an Iran expert at the Congressional Research Service, says he and many of his peers believe that elements of the plan–such as the alleged intent to use a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the killing–simply don’t comport with what they know "about the way Iranians conduct terrorist attacks" and "the way they implement them." Katzman also notes that the attack, if it had succeeded, would have drawn a strong retaliatory U.S. response, which is something Iran "does not want."
October 14, 2011
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In-Depth Coverage
Original Commentaries
- 12/02/11
- Discussion With Tunisia’s Rachid Ghannouchi —
- 12/02/11
- Debating Military Action Against Iran —
- 12/02/11
- Terms Of Disengagement —
Setting the Record Straight
Determined to Reach a Common Objective
“We knew at the outset that the task would be difficult. We acknowledged that publicly and privately. We knew this would be a road with many bumps— and there have been many bumps—and that continues to this day. But we are not deterred. We are, to the contrary, determined more than ever to proceed to realize the common objective, which we all share, of a Middle East that is at peace with security and prosperity for the people of Israel, for Palestinians, and for all the people in the region. We will continue our efforts in that regard, undeterred and undaunted by the difficulties, the complexities or the bumps in the road.”—George Mitchell, special envoy for Middle East peace, remarks with Prime Minister Netanyahu, September 29, 2010Middle East Analysis
- Don’t Panic. Yet —Issandr El Amrani (The Arabist)
- The Islamists vs. The Markets: Egypt’s Election Analyzed —Haroon Moghul (Religion Dispatches)
- What the Libya Intervention Achieved —Marc Lynch (Foreign Policy)
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From Afghanistan and Iraq to Pakistan, Somalia, and South Sudan, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, is engaged daily in trying to help some of the most troubled nations on the planet make a lasting transition to stability, open markets, and democracy. Few areas of the agency’s work are more challenging or more controversial.
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