James Himberger

President Donald Trump does not need Iran to become trustworthy to close a nuclear deal. He needs a deal that makes mistrust manageable. That is the real problem at the center of the Iranian nuclear program question. The hardest issue is no longer simply whether Tehran signs another promise not to build a bomb. It is what happens to the uranium stockpile that could shorten the path to a nuclear crisis.

After more than 23 years of rule, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey has all the characteristics of a repressive regime. The legal system, which apparently is at Erdogan’s beck and call, and a battery of laws are calculated to suppress dissent, but there are cracks. Erdogan said in February 2012 that the aim of his governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) was to “raise a religious generation,” which he has since set out to do.

Today, June 7, Armenians are voting in a parliamentary election that has been described, accurately enough, as a referendum on the country’s geopolitical direction. Six weeks of Western commentary have framed it as a binary: if Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wins, the country’s Western pivot survives; if he loses, Russian influence returns to Yerevan.