MOSCOW: Russia, Iran’s main remaining big-power friend, was disappointed in the results of multilateral talks with the Islamic Republic in Moscow last week. It had expected movement towards a compromise on disputed Iranian nuclear work that would have allowed the high-level negotiation to continue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said. In an exclusive interview,… Keep reading →

MOSCOW: The diplomatic quest to engage Iran and allay fears it seeks the bomb may have hit a big brick wall here. Iran and the US-led group of six nations with which it is negotiating could not reach agreement on how to guarantee the Islamic Republic will not make nuclear weapons. The two sides halted… Keep reading →

MOSCOW: Could this be the make-or-break negotiation in the Iranian nuclear crisis? Iran meets with the United States and five other nations in Moscow on Monday over its nuclear program. It is their third session in three months in the latest round of an almost decade-old attempt to answer fears that Iran seeks the bomb.… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: As terrorist groups increasingly work with drug gangs and other international criminals, they pose new threats to the United States – but they also create new vulnerabilities that savvy Americans can use to attack them, said the Pentagon’s top drug war expert, William Wechsler. The US needs to go beyond thinking of terrorist groups… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: The number of malware attacks soared 81 percent last year, from three billion in 2010 to five-and-a-half billion in 2012, Symantec senior engineer Patrick Gardner told congressional staff in a briefing here today. But those raw numbers aren’t the really bad news. What’s truly scary is the endless inventiveness of the attackers. They… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: In the budget wars between the services, “hybrid threats” and “AirSea Battle” have become rallying buzzwords of two opposing camps. On one side, Army leaders talk of hybrid threats, whose blend of guerrilla tactics and high-tech weapons pose the greatest plausible threat on land, now that Soviet-style tank armies are extinct and the nation… Keep reading →

With its launch of a new, faster intercontinental missile, Russia appears to have sent a message to NATO and the United States that it isn’t sitting still in the face of what it says is the threat posed by the alliance’s new missile defense system. This new, faster missile — supposedly called the Avant Garde… Keep reading →

Little progress was made towards a deal between Iran and the six major powers at talks this week in Iraq.With speculation about a possible Israeli strike still high, one key aspect of a possible conflict with Iran has been little discussed. Michael Adler, an expert on Iran’s nuclear capabilities at the Woodrow Wilson Center here… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: While the Littoral Combat Ship is not suited for the front lines of a war with China, it would provide vital protection to US supply lines in such conflict, said Under Secretary of the Navy Robert Work, and against Iran, LCS would be in the battle from “day one,” with eight LCSs ultimately operating… Keep reading →

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA: Coping with China and Iran at the same time is stretching the Navy thin, and it will soon have to choose which theater to prioritize, warned Peter Daly, the recently retired admiral who now heads the prestigious US Naval Institute. The Obama administration’s new strategic guidance said the US would boost its… Keep reading →