Guy Taylor
Articles by Guy Taylor
Benjamin Netanyahu to speak on Iran before Congress, while John Kerry sorts out nuke deal overseas
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears before both houses of Congress next week, Secretary of State John F. Kerry won't be there — he'll be in Geneva trying to hammer out the final details of a nuclear deal with Iran that the Israeli leader in coming to Washington to oppose. Published February 25, 2015
John Kerry defends Obama Iran nuclear talks, fails to appease bipartisan critics
Secretary of State John F. Kerry defended the Obama administration's pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran in the face of mounting bipartisan scrutiny from lawmakers Tuesday — even as an Iranian dissident group claimed to have fresh proof that Tehran has lied to world powers about its drive to obtain a nuclear weapon. Published February 24, 2015
Iran running clandestine nuclear facility; group says it has proof
Claiming that Iran's government has been lying for years to U.N. nuclear inspectors, a prominent Iranian dissident group on Tuesday asserted that scientists in the Islamic Republic have actually been running a secret uranium enrichment operation at a facility buried deep beneath the ground in the northeast suburbs of Tehran since 2008. Published February 24, 2015
John Kerry urges patience amid report of nukes deal: ‘Iran will not get a nuclear weapon’
Secretary of State John F. Kerry pushed back against critics of the Obama administration's pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran Tuesday, asserting that U.S. negotiators are working from a simple policy point that "Iran will not get a nuclear weapon." Published February 24, 2015
Iran nuclear deal closer with uranium enrichment increase provision
U.S. and Iranian negotiators moved closer Monday to reaching a two-phase nuclear deal that would hinge on a provision allowing Tehran to ramp up its uranium enrichment gradually after a 10-year period of restrictions and inspection from outside powers. Published February 23, 2015
Israeli spy agency broke with Netanyahu on Iran threat — report
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2012 warning world that Iran was about a year away from having a nuclear bomb was contradicted just weeks later by a top secret assessment from Israel's own Mossad intelligence agency — which concluded that Tehran was "not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons." Published February 23, 2015
White House: Odds still iffy for nuclear deal with Iran
The Obama administration said Monday that the prospects for a successful nuclear deal with Iran are "fifty-fifty at best," despite reports that U.S. and Iranian negotiators moved closer over the weekend to a two-phase agreement that would allow Tehran to ramp up its nuclear activities over time after an initial clamp-down. Published February 23, 2015
Obama admin. pressured to ignore Egypt’s human rights abuses as Islamic State threat grows
With Islamic State violence spreading rapidly into Libya, the Obama administration finds itself under increasing pressure to downplay human rights abuses carried out by the Egyptian government in favor of trumpeting Cairo as the next major Sunni Muslim Arab partner willing to take a military stand against the extremists. Published February 22, 2015
IAEA: Iran withholding cooperation on nuclear disclosure
In a new assessment that may complicate the ongoing Iran nuclear talks, the United Nation's atomic watchdog agency said Thursday that Iranian authorities still haven't addressed allegations that they carried out explosives tests and other activities that could have been aimed at developing a nuclear bomb. Published February 19, 2015
Iran flexes muscle in Indian Ocean, sends flotilla of warships across equator
A flotilla of warships from Iran passed southward across the equator Thursday as part of a voyage from Sri Lanka toward Indonesia that Iranian officials said was designed to show the nation is "active and powerful" in the Indian Ocean. Published February 19, 2015
Nigerian minister rejects U.S. criticism, vows to hold election
Two of Nigeria's top diplomats vowed Wednesday that their nation's postponed elections will occur March 28, and accused the Obama administration of promoting a false narrative that President Goodluck Jonathan is bent on using the security crisis around the terrorist group Boko Haram as a ruse to stay in power. Published February 18, 2015
Pro-Russia separatists ignore Ukraine cease-fire deadline, push deeper into Debaltseve
Russian-backed separatists kept up a barrage of shelling and made strategic territorial gains in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday as a key cease-fire deadline came and went, triggering fresh speculation that Moscow hopes to carve out a land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula before Western powers take a military stand in the nation. Published February 17, 2015
John McCain, Lindsey Graham blast Obama administration’s waffling on arming Ukraine
Two influential Republican national security hawks in the Senate hammered the Obama administration's failure to take a more aggressive posture toward the war in eastern Ukraine Tuesday, asserting that the White House should "immediately" authorize the shipment of U.S. weapons to the Ukrainian military. Published February 17, 2015
Islamic State announces expansion into Libya with Egyptian Christians beheading video
As President Obama tries to contain the chaos in the Middle East, the Islamic State group is increasingly bent on expanding the battlefield into North Africa, where the extremist group's grisly beheadings of Egyptian Christians in Libya prompted a double wave of retaliatory airstrikes from Cairo on Monday. Published February 16, 2015
Ukraine-Russia cease-fire jeopardized by continued fighting around Debaltseve
Continued fighting Sunday around a key transport hub in eastern Ukraine threatened to derail the delicate cease-fire that went into effect over the weekend between Ukraine's military and Russian-backed separatists. Published February 15, 2015
Obama administration warily eyes Ukraine-Russia cease-fire while mulling arms support
The Obama administration said Friday that it is still weighing whether to provide U.S. weapons to Ukraine's military and that the success or failure of a delicate peace deal reached this week to end the nation's conflict with Russia-backed separatists will affect the calculus of the decision. Published February 13, 2015
‘No cheap way’ to defeat Islamic State; multigenerational approach needed, former top spy warns
The Pentagon's former top spy warned Friday that U.S. leaders will need to engage in a level of ideological focus and long-term power projection not seen since World War II if they want to defeat the Islamic State and the myriad of other jihadist groups spreading from the Middle East deep into Africa today. Published February 13, 2015
Ukraine peace deal brokered by European leaders
The Obama administration on Thursday cautiously embraced the peace deal brokered by Germany and France to end Ukraine's civil war, despite critics who say Russia and the Ukrainian separatists it is backing got the better of the deal, solidifying their hold on disputed territory while delaying any expanded Western military role in the conflict. Published February 12, 2015
Islamic State territory now ‘the size of Belgium’: lawmaker
The Obama administration's top counterterrorism official said Wednesday that the number of foreign fighters traveling from the U.S. and other nations to join the Islamic State extremist movement in Syria and Iraq continues to grow — with some 20,000 fighters having flooded in from more than 90 countries in recent years. Published February 11, 2015
Joe Biden, amid coup charges, meets Venezuelan opposition figures
Vice President Joseph R. Biden met Wednesday at the White House with the spouse of a jailed Venezuelan opposition leader just a week after the South American nation's president accused Mr. Biden of actively helping to plot a coup against him. Published February 11, 2015