President Barack Obama's proposals are primed to pre-empt war as his first priority before even pre-empting a nuclear Iran. The deal he is offering Tehran will be hard to refuse because it virtually relieves its nuclear program of effective international oversight. Tehran is nonetheless holding out for an end to sanctions.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey agree to set up a joint command for coordinating preparations for a combined invasion of Syria and the creation of buffer zones protected by their air forces. Ankara is putting pressure on NATO to help defend Turkish borders against Iranian reprisal. Both partners ...

The rift over Iran between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu burst into the open Monday, April 16 when high-ranking Israeli officials close to Netanyahu directly accused the president of reneging on the US-Israeli understandings reached ahead of the Istanbul talks on April 14 between the six powers and Iran. The show biz in Istanbul and Baghdad on May 23, they charged, screened the real nuclear business the US and Iran were contracting in secret contacts through Paris and Vienna.

The only real action at the resumed nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six world powers in Istanbul Saturday, April 14, was played out on the sidelines. The Obama administration’s intense effort to put relations with Tehran on a new, more amicable footing was thrown back in its face by the head of the Iranian delegation, Saeed Jalili, who spurned an invitation from senior US delegate, Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, to a bilateral meeting - after a humiliating runaround.

In their different ways, the rulers of Iran, North Korea and Syria this week tried to throw US President Barack Obama off balance by exploiting the foreign policy balls he is juggling to win the November election – a combination of tough talk and maneuvers for staying clear of military confrontation. They will continue to try and throw the US off-balance by extreme provocations, especially at the nuclear talks starting in Istanbul Saturday, April 14, between Iran and six world powers.

debkafile’s Washington sources disclose exclusively that the Obama administration and Netanyahu government have secretly agreed on “Formula of 1,000” ending the forthcoming Six Power nuclear talks with Iran. It would let Iran keep 1,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium up to 3.5 percent and stock 1,000 kilograms of the same grade uranium, while giving up except for medical research its store of 20-percent grade uranium which can be jumped quickly to weapon quality.

On March 25, in Seoul, President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan agreed on the six-point US policy outline the latter would carry to the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ahead of Iran’s forthcoming nuclear talks with six world powers. The exercise was not a success. Khamenei has still not answered the president’s missive and Tehran has turned its guns on Erdogan. The six points published here were first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly on March 29.

A new US intelligence position paper addressed to the Oval Office makes Tayyip Erdogan the linchpin of Obama’s Middle East and Iran policies after he showed the flag by accepting a US radar station, part of NATO’s anti-Iran missile shield. This won him a harsh dressing-down by ...

Iran, Syria and Hizballah are celebrating Assad’s victory over the 12-month uprising against him and counting the advantages it confers on Tehran against the US and Saudi Arabia. The Iran-Syria-Hizballlah axis is now successfully shored up against the Obama administration’s strategy of isolation and sanctions for squeezing Iran into making concessions at the nuclear negotiations in two weeks.  Both are fading. It also serves as a warning to those Israelis who advocate passing the buck for preempting a nuclear Iran to Washington.

The US President has tacitly indicated to the Iranian leader that if elected to a second term he will have more room for maneuver and a freer hand for pursuing policies agreed in their back-channel dialogue. So please, Iranian officials, speak more kindly about America.

Obama’s Grand Diplomatic Offensive for using a pacified Syria to persuade Iran to be accommodating at the coming nuclear negotiations is not yet in the bag. It is dogged by Saudi objections and problems with its policy Syria due to flawed US intelligence both about Assad’s survivability and the ...

Erdogan won an ultra-cool welcome in Tehran after he was discovered pumping anti-tank missiles to the Syrian rebels after Bashar Assad began helping Turkey’s PKK Kurdish faction. His Iranian hosts gave him the runaround before he was received by Khamenei to hand over Barack Obama’s message.

Wikileaks Wednesday, March 28 published mails indicating that Binyamin Netanyahu may have been a source ol the US Stratfor research site. Its Vice President for intelligence Fred Burton claimed in e-mails he was in contact with Netanyahu from May 2007 up until 2010 after he became Prime Minister. One e-mail said that in Dec. 2009, “BB” told him Iran has “two nukes on missiles ready to go.” The Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem has not commented on the publication.

“On all these issues, particularly missile defense, this can be solved. It is important for him (Putin) to give me space. This is my last election,” US President Barack Obama was “caught” telling Dmitry Medvedev on an open mike Sunday, March 26. DEBKA-Net-Weekly in its latest issue out Friday reveals that almost the same message went out to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, via Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan.
Find out what Obama offered Khamenei to smooth his passage to reelection – and much more.
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US President Barack Obama sits down with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Seoul, South Korea Sunday, March 25. Earlier, Obama gave the Turkish leader - and Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu too - a lesson in political expediency: March 20, Washington awarded 11 nations exemptions from new US financial sanctions against Iran. The downscaling of sanctions caught Israel by surprise and angered Turkey, most of all as the outcome of unknown secret US-Iranian talks.

The Obama administration is satisfied enough with the progress made in its secret dialogue with Ayatollah Khamenei that it has begun winding sanctions down, starting with exemptions to 11 nations from the oil embargo on Iran.

Riyadh sees Iran counting its profits from sanctions-boosted oil prices regardless of extra Saudi pumping. Washington blocked the sale of arms for a Saudi strike against Iran and shut the Jordanian route for Saudi troops to enter Syria. The two Kings Abdullah are at odds.

While the Obama administration is pleased with the progress of secret diplomacy with Iran, Supreme Leader Khamenei does not expect practical results despite Iranian concessions on its nuclear program.

US President Barack Obama hauled Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas over the coals when they talked by phone Monday, March 19. He coldly demanded that the Palestinians return without further delay to the talks in the Jordanian capital of Amman which they quit abruptly after several rounds. Their conversation ended on a harsh note when Abbas refused to return to negotiations.
Monday, Palestinian ex-prime minister Ahmad Qurai (Abu Ala) proclaimed the death of the two-state solution in an Al Quds article.

The Middle East has unknowingly been living for ten days under threat of a regional war, which debkafile’s military sources disclose was delivered by Syrian president Bashar Assad to UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan Saturday, March 10. Assad warned him that Syrian missiles would reach any countries preparing for military intervention in Syria before they moved. debkafile: Four European naval and air forces stand ready to seal off security zones in Syria against Assad’s troops and planes.