AP: President Barack Obama’s hopes for a nuclear deal with Iran now depend in part on his ability to keep a lid on both hard-liners on Capitol Hill and anxious allies abroad, including Israel, the Persian Gulf states and even France.
Obama faces worry at home, abroad over Iran talks
Iran’s Supreme Leader runs business empire worth £60bn
The Independent: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei controls a business empire worth around £60 billion – a sum exceeding the value of his oil-rich nation’s annual petroleum exports – a six-month Reuters investigation has found.
UK: Iran to face tougher sanctions without nuclear deal
Reuters: British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Monday that there would be pressure to intensify sanctions on Iran if it could not reach a deal with world powers over its disputed nuclear program.
Vive la France on Iran
Wall Street Journal: We never thought we’d say this, but thank heaven for French foreign-policy exceptionalism. At least for the time being, François Hollande’s Socialist government has saved the West from a deal that would all but guarantee that Iran becomes a nuclear power.
Iran denies it scuttled nuclear talks
AFP: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday denied US claims that the Islamic republic had scuttled nuclear talks in Geneva, pointing instead to France as the culprit.
Oil prices rise after Iran nuclear talks stall
AFP: Oil prices rose on Monday after marathon talks in Geneva aimed at convincing Iran to curb its disputed nuclear program ended without an agreement.
Iraq must free 7 Camp Ashraf hostages
The Diplomat: On October 28, I joined a cross-party panel at a conference in Church House, Westminster, with dozens of my colleagues from both Houses of Parliament to talk about Iran and what we, in the U.K., can do in the face of appalling atrocities committed by the Iranian regime.
Britain, Iran name envoys on path to restoring ties
AFP: Britain and Iran on Monday named non-resident charges d’affaires to each other’s capitals, with London’s envoy to visit Tehran this month to start mending ties severed by the ransacking of the British embassy in 2011.
Kerry returns to Washington to defend possible Iran deal
UPI: The White House will make “absolutely certain” Iran “never has a nuclear weapon,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said before returning to Washington Monday. He was to return a day before appearing before skeptical lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
‘Vive la France!’ say US opponents of Iran nuclear deal
AFP: Conservative US leaders, fond of finger-pointing at France in recent years, lavished praise on Paris Sunday for blocking an agreement between Western powers and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.
