WASHINGTON - Calls to ease sanctions on Iran to spur global negotiations over its nuclear program will backfire, making a deal far less likely and greatly raising the risk of an Israeli military strike to cripple the program.

WASHINGTON - Recent developments in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere have convinced skeptics that U.S.

WASHINGTON - The Palestinian push for U.N. recognition of statehood comes amid signs that Palestinians are discarding the notion of living in peace with Israel, which will require the United States to veto any proposal that reaches the Security Council in order to protect its key Middle East ally.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States and bomb Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington and elsewhere was not some bizarre move by a rogue operator within Iran's government.

WASHINGTON - The United States faces a cold reality: even stepped-up U.S. and Western sanctions of recent weeks have not persuaded Iran's radical regime, which is driving ever closer to nuclear weaponry, to shift course.

The Arab Spring has brought hope to millions across the Middle East and North Africa, but whether its ultimate outcome is a more democratic region or just a new set of autocrats to replace the old remains a very open question.

WASHINGTON - At its best, U.S. policy toward the Middle East consists of a deft combination of short-term pragmatism and long-term idealism. In the short term, Washington works to protect Israel and other U.S.

Make no mistake: U.N. Security Council sanctions and additional U.S. and European pressures are hurting Iran. Tehran is having a harder time importing food and other key goods, its foreign investment is drying up, financial firms and shipping companies are turning down its business, and its central bank is running short of hard currency.

...ruffle some feathers in their quest to protect the nation, so be it. The issue is too important to avoid. ? Lawrence J. Haas is senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the American Foreign Policy Council. Readers may write to him at...

Prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have not been rising. The central issues of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements and Palestinian refugees seem no closer to resolution, and turmoil in Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and elsewhere in the region further complicates efforts to reach long-term solutions to vexing challenges.