Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
Robin Wright, a joint fellow at the Wilson Center and the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, said it's not completely clear why Trevithick was detained. Trevithick was Wright's research assistant at the Wilson Center in 2009, and the two have remained friends, she said.
Fourteen months ago, President Obama authorized a top-secret, second diplomatic channel with Tehran to negotiate freedom for Americans who had disappeared or been imprisoned in Iran. It was a high-risk diplomatic gamble.
Ten U.S. sailors were released after being held overnight by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. They were seized when two boats drifted into Iranian waters due to faulty navigation systems. State Secretary John Kerry credited the speedy resolution to improved relations. Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports on the near-crisis and Judy Woodruff talks to The New Yorker’s Robin Wright.
Ten U.S. sailors were released after being held overnight by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. They were seized when two boats drifted into Iranian waters due to faulty navigation systems. State Secretary John Kerry credited the speedy resolution to improved relations. Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports on the near-crisis and Judy Woodruff talks to USIP's Robin Wright.
We'll start today's show with what could be the next war in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia versus Iran. Sunni versus Shia. The execution of a cleric. The severing of relations. What will the next step be? Will this Cold War turn hot and what role should America play?
Journalist Robin Wright, who has written about the Middle East since 1973, tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that the conflict between the countries comes at an especially sensitive time. "The timing of this confrontation is really dangerous, because January was the month of important developments on four different peace initiatives that were really part of the international effort to prevent the Middle East from disintegrating completely," Wright says.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are using religious differences to inflame their deep-seated rivalry for power and influence — creating new instability in the Middle East. We hear what's at stake for the Iran nuclear deal, Syria's civil war, the fight against ISIS — and America's interests.
The inflamed tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the execution of a Shiite cleric by Saudi Arabia is widening, as nations take sides and the regions threatens to further divide along Shiite-Sunni lines.
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran that date back decades have heated up this week after the Saudis executed a prominent Shiite opposition cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Much of the regional rivalry is about who wields the most political muscle in the ... "The original schism between Islam's two largest sects was not over religious doctrine. It was over political leadership," said Robin Wright
The rule of thumb in the Middle East is that diplomacy often—too often—makes progress only to be overtaken by unforeseen violence on the ground. It’s happening again. Tensions between the Islamic world’s rival powers—the Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia and the Shiite theocracy in Iran—that erupted over the New Year’s weekend now jeopardize a string of fragile peace initiatives...