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The article looks at the propose political reforms of political parties in Iran, as majority of its reformists intends to expand its foreign investments and international trade transactions.

This article discusses foreign relations between North Korea and dictator Kim Jong Il and South Korea and President Lee Myung-bak in 2010.

The article discusses the unusual dynamics in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson has halted shutdown by defying hardliners and relied on Democrats to pass a temporary funding bill. The chaos following the ousting of Johnson's predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, and the challenge of reaching a long-term spending deal with Democrats contribute to the uncertainty and divisions within the Republican caucus.

The article informs that the U.S. stand-off with Iran could escalate for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It mentions the Islamic Republic's new president, Ebrahim Raisi, has side-stepped Western efforts to restore the JCPOA, and Iran's hardliners worry that the West would use the JCPOA as a first step to curb Iran's regional reach and its missile programme, and press it on human rights.

The article informs on the state of asylum in the European Union (EU). It mentions that Iraqi Airways flight IA271 from Baghdad to Minsk ran once a week at the start of year, and in July it was going four times as often, and was was overseen by Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, whose government had encouraged the arrivals. It also mentions that the ideological war over asylum between humanitarians and hardliners.

Mohsen Rezai, a senior member of the Expediency Council in Iran believes that Iran will not become a repressive dictatorship. Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of a hardline daily, demurs; he predicts the "turbulent" elimination of Iran's largest reform party from public life. Both men are beholden to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and their disagreement reflects the unusual, and crucial, pressures on Iran's supreme leader. Conservatives, rattled by Muhammad Khatami's threat to resign as president if they do not hand over power to him and his reform movement, are tugging Mr Khamenei, also a conservative, in two directions: Mr Rezai and his allies pull him towards pragmatism; hardliners towards despotism. The hardliners longed to unleash their armed thugs on the recent student demonstrations, provoked by a death sentence handed to Hashem Aghajari, a freethinking academic.

Focuses on the outlook for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Question of whether the Israeli assault on the Palestinian Authority (PA) will end the Arab-Israeli conflict; Way that political hardliners such as the far-right Israeli coalition and militant groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad may prevent an agreement; Way that an agreement about a viable Palestinian state may be reached.

The article explores the political support gained by a softer Brexit amid the dispute between business leaders and Conservative hardliners over its execution. Several companies have expressed concerns on the effect of the event of a no-deal Brexit, including aircraft manufacturer Airbus and carmakers Honda and Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW). The position of Prime Minister Theresa May on the issue is discussed, as well as the concern of former secretary Boris Johnson.

The article discusses the protest of the people of Iran taking place in some cities which were initiated by religious hardliners against president Hassan Rouhani. Topics include the change in the protesters aim and demands, protesting to urge the surrender of power of the president Mr Rouhani, the ruling clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the inability of their current elected president to fulfill his presidential promises of reforms and economic growth.

Comments on the political situation in the Serb Republic. Two governments running the Serb Republic, Biljana Plavsic's regime, and Radovan Karadzic and Momcilo Krajisnik; Election in November 1997 in which Milorad Dodik defeated the hardliners; Prohibition of refugees returning to their homes by Dodik; Military offensive launched against hardliners by Dodik; Shut down of the Bosnian Serb news agency with the help of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The article explores the results of the election in Iran that re-elected Hassan Rouhani as president in May 2017. Rouhani beat Ebrahim Raisi in the election and hardliners were defeated in all Tehran's 21 seats. During the campaign, Rouhani promised to promote civil liberties and to hold to account the Revolutionary Guard, the judiciary, the state media and clerical charities.

Focuses on possible United States reactions to Cuban political persecution of dissidents. Well before it took office, the Bush administration promised tough action on Cuba. Naturally, hardliners among the Cuban exiles living in the U.S., most of whom voted for Bush in the 2000 presidential election, think that, after taking down a dictator in Iraq, the administration should turn its attention to Fidel Castro. The hardliners want two things: a suspension of the increasingly popular charter flights between the U.S. and Cuba, and a ban on cash remittances sent by exiles to their relatives back home. The critics say this would be counter-productive, turning attention away from Castro's human-rights abuses to a U.S. president stopping family charity. In some ways, Castro's crackdown has eased things for the White House. It has hurt the efforts being made in Congress to lift the embargo. It has also sent a chill through the American business community, which had been showing increased interest in trade with Cuba. The most important effect, however, may be the reaction of the new moderates among the Miami exiles.

The article states that Iranian hardliners who had warned that the U.S. policies toward Iran were targeting Iranian citizens in addition to the Iranian government were vindicated when U.S. president Donald Trump imposed new sanctions against Iran and a travel ban preventing Iranians from traveling to the U.S. shortly after taking office and ahead of Iranian elections.

The article focuses on the 2016 campaign for governor of Jakarta, Indonesia. It states that Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is the frontrunner and is a Christian and of Chinese descent in a mostly Muslim and Malay nation. It mentions he was deputy governor but in 2014 became governor when his predecessor, Joko Widodo ran for president. It comments on how the Muslim community is defusing efforts by hardliners to denounce Purnama. It talks about rival candidates Anies Baswedan and Agus Yudhoyono.

The article focuses on the various Eastern European political anniversaries during the month of August. August, in eastern Europe, means anniversaries: the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 that divided the region into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence; the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961; the Soviet-led invasion of 1968 that crushed Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring; the birth in 1980 of Solidarity, the Polish trade union which dealt a death-blow to communism; and the Soviet coup of 1991, where hardliners locked up Mikhail Gorbachev to preserve the Soviet Union, but ended up giving Boris Yeltsin the power to destroy it. Anniversaries matter in this part of the world, partly because the events they commemorate shaped so dramatically the way countries are today.

The article focuses on politics in Iran and president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is trying to reassure reformers that his government will make no room for "any type of extremism". Mehdi Kalhor, the president-elect's cultural adviser, insists that the new government will not interfere in people's private lives. But Mr Ahmadinejad rode to power on promises--of private piety, public probity and wealth redistribution. He may have squeezed into the run-off, after a first round that eliminated five of the seven candidates, thanks to illegal canvassing in his favour by a nationwide militia of religious vigilantes known as basijis. According to the Interior Ministry, which is controlled by the outgoing (reformist) government of President Muhammad Khatami, the run-off was marred by "unprecedented irregularities". Mr Ahmadinejad is at least half-right in attributing his election to the "popular will", for he trounced his second-round opponent, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, by 17.3m votes to 10m in a turn-out of 49%, a far bigger margin than anyone thinks he could have achieved by purely dishonourable means. But the new president's allies, especially hardliners in parliament, will press him to segregate the sexes in universities, crack down on immodest dress and adopt a strict version of Islam in interpreting culture.

The article focuses on Indonesia, which bore the brunt of the tsunami, suffering 100,000 or the 150,000 fatalities. The world's response has been generous, but is already causing tensions. In the aftermath of December 26th, Indonesia threw open the province of Aceh to foreign aid workers and journalists. Such openness and moderation marked a break with the suspicion and secrecy of the past, and raised hopes that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's new president, would set a fresh tone for government policy on Aceh, and on security matters more broadly. In recent days, however, the government has started to toe the army's line. Yudhoyono has said that he would like to see all foreign aid workers leave Aceh by the end of March. In fairness, the government's response to foreign aid and its forbearance in the face of radical groups reflect local public opinion. Some analysts wonder whether the president really supports the new regulations in Aceh, or has simply been outmanoeuvred by hardliners in the army.

The article looks at the replacement of Myanmar's Prime Minister Khin Nyunt by General Soe Win in 2004. As number three in the hierarchy of a regime known best for its brutality, General Khin Nyunt, Myanmar's prime minister and head of military intelligence, was no cuddly liberal. But his ousting on October 19th, to be replaced by General Soe Win, a martinet identified with the army's hardliners, leaves a sense of deep foreboding about the country's future. An official statement made no reference to accounts emerging from diplomats that Nyunt was placed under house arrest and charged with corruption, while one contingent of troops sealed off his house and another raided his military-intelligence headquarters. Still, the prime minister's departure removes the one senior member of the junta who offered any hope of reconciliation between the junta and the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Nyunt became the first port of call for diplomats like Razali Ismail, the United Nation's special envoy, who invested years of effort in trying to promote working relations between Suu Kyi and the armed forces. Nyunt's main success arguably came in negotiating a series of ceasefires with Myanmar's ethnic minorities, bringing some respite from their long battles for autonomy.

The article discusses the threat of Iran's nuclear ambitions to the international community as of September 2004. Is Iran's theocratic regime much of a threat to anyone other than its own mightily put-upon people? With hardliners in the ascendant, hope of turning aside Iran's troubling nuclear ambitions is fading too. Yet a nuclear-armed Iran is a danger worth averting. Over the past 18 months Iran has reluctantly confessed to breaking every rule in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty rule-book. A fissile region that has lived uneasily with Israel's bombs would be unlikely to accept a nuclear-armed Iran with equanimity. Whatever Iran's motives--regional primacy or mere technological one-upmanship--the nuclear chain reaction could quickly see Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and even Turkey follow suit. It was in hopes of averting all this that last October Britain, France and Germany offered Iran a face-saver: a delay in reporting its nuclear transgressions to the United Nations Security Council if Iran suspended all uranium-enrichment-related activity and told all to the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors. Iran can still enjoy the benefits of civilian nuclear power, even after giving up its dangerous fuel technologies. Backed by the threat of real sanctions, it is worth a try. If diplomacy is ever to denuclearize Iran, the time to try harder is now.

Jim Moran, a Democratic congressman from Virginia, has a reputation for leading with his mouth. On March 3, 2003, the pugilistic Irish Catholic suggested that the looming war with Iraq was the handiwork of the American Jews. Gradually people from the left and right are beginning to allege in public what some moderates whisper privately: that war against Iraq has been promoted by a cabal of Jewish hardliners who are more concerned with protecting Israel than they are with advancing America's national interest. Michael Lerner, a rabbi and editor of the leftist Jewish magazine Tikkun, was blackballed from speaking at an anti-war rally in San Francisco, California because some of the sponsors apparently refused to have a "pro-Israel" speaker. In the 1930s, when anti-Semitism was both pervasive and respectable in America, Charles Lindbergh and his America-Firsters blamed Jewish interests for trying to drag America into a pointless war with Germany.

Reports on the kidnapping and murder of three writers in Iran and the theory that the murders are the work of Islamic hardliners bent on undermining President Muhammad Khatami. Conservatives' claim that the murders are the result of a foreign plot; Attacks on liberal-minded officials by Islamic extremists; Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Pouyandeh among the writers killed.

Examines the economic condition in China as of January 1991. Opposition to bourgeois liberalization; Reconciliation between Marxism and a market economy; Economic reforms; Relations between the central and local authorities; Battle between economic reformists and those hardliners; Urban unemployment.

Reports on the softening of the Iranian government's policy on the fatwa, or religious death sentence, against Salman Rushdie. Popularity of the administration of President Mohammad Khatami; Its policies towards Rushdie and the United States; Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi stating the government's intention not to carry out the death sentence; Reaction of the British government and hardliners in Iran.

Questions the survival of Binyamin Netanyahu's government in Israel. Assertiveness of the hardliners in his coalition after the departure of foreign minister David Levy; Levy's objections to the government's insensitive economic policies and peace process; Rumors of a deal between Levy and Labour leader Ehud Barak; Possible invocation of a section of law that provides for removal of a prime minister by a vote of members of the Knesset.

Relates that the Cambodian government is negotiating in August 1996 with a breakaway faction of the Khmers Rouges, the party which killed up to a quarter of the population in the 1970s. The split in the party's ranks between peace-supporters loyal to Ieng Sary and hardliners loyal to Pol Pot; Assertion of the breakaway faction, that it wants to renounce war; Map of Khmers Rouges' zones of influence.

Discusses the upcoming July 1996 presidential election in Russia. Opinion poll predictions; The strong performance of Alexander Lebed as Boris Yeltsin's new security adviser and right-hand man; Yeltsin's gain from the firing of three Kremlin hardliners; How Gennady Zyuganov has more committed supporters than Yelstin; The publication of Yeltsin's wish-list of non-communist politicans who would be offered jobs if he was elected; Yeltsin's health and succession plans.

Reports on threats from Zaire in the fall of 1995 that they may restart forcible repatriation of refugees. The message from Kengo Wa Dondo to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Politics in Rwanda, and the downfall of Faustin Twagiramungu, a moderate Hutu; Views of some observers about Tutsi hardliners; Other aspects.

Focuses on the investigation regarding the assassination of Jose Ruiz Massieu, the secretary-general of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Speculation that the murder was the result of a power struggle between the PRI's reformers and its hardliners; Belief of the party leaders that the killing was the work of drug traffickers; Comment of Mario Ruiz Massieu, a top anti-drug federal prosecutor, regarding the assassination.

This article focuses on the Western perception about Russian economy and politics. Since last month's election, in which ex-communists and ranting nationalists did so well, many outsiders have grown gloomy about Russia. There is certainly cause for gloom, but not yet for despair, especially if the West handles Russia in the right way. Despite the assault on the Russian parliament last October that was supposed to defeat the hardliners, the new parliament may be as obstructive as the old one. The West's policy towards Russia seems to have failed. Western policy over the past two years has indeed been inadequate. The West's efforts to help economic reform have been badly handled. In 1992 the U.S. announced $24 billion in aid, some $15 billion arrived. Given Russia's failure to meet its own commitments on economic reform, this holding back was quite defensible.

The article focuses on Iran's 2013 presidential elections and how this could influence relations with Western countries. It states outgoing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rule has seen the Iranian economy falter, with high inflation and unemployment. It talks about the presidential candidates, including former nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani, who is considered a moderate, and Saeed Jalili, a favorite among hardliners. It recommends U.S. President Barack Obama should offer fresh talks.

The article reports on the decline of India's prominent Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The rising dalit (untouchable)-led Bahujan Samaj Party and the likewise declining Congress Party gained or maintained their presence in the elections in Uttar Pradesh elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party is split between hardliners who want a wholly Hindu India and those who are willing to accept a diverse nation.

The article focuses on Lal Krishna Advani, the 77-year-old president of India's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mr Advani, who went to Pakistan at the beginning of this month, hoped to help transform his image from anti-Pakistan hardliner to that of moderate peace-loving political leader. He wants to be seen as the natural successor to Atal Behari Vajpayee, a more moderate 80-year-old BJP leader who was prime minister until last year. Unfortunately, Mr Advani's emotional visit to Pakistan (including the city of Karachi where he was born) was too much for hardliners in the BJP and for some sections of the Sangh Parivar (the Hindu "family" of organisations) that tried only recently to oust him on account of his age. Mr Advani resigned as party president on June 6th. He eventually seemed to be softening his line on resignation, when BJP leaders agreed to recognise his Pakistan trip as a success, despite his remarks about Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslim founder of Pakistan. Mr Advani is also leader of India's parliamentary opposition. It is possible that, released from his party duties, he could emerge as a stronger politician.

The article focuses on Turkey and the European Union (EU). When EU leaders agreed in December 2004 to open membership talks with Turkey, the country's future looked better than it had for decades. Three months on, the reformist zeal of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the mildly Islamist prime minister, seems to have diminished--and there are troubling signs of anti-westernism in some Turkish quarters. EU diplomats are now saying that Turkey must get moving if entry talks are to start, as promised, in October. Before the talks can begin, Turkey must formalise relations with all ten countries that joined the EU last May--including the Greek-Cypriot government, which is not recognised in Ankara. A sense of drift in Ankara has deepened with the defection of eight government deputies, including the liberal culture minister, Erkan Mumcu. The prime minister may be trying to assuage hardliners who resent his failure to make the changes they seek most. Or, more worryingly, Erdogan may be influenced by a resurgence of Turkish nationalism, which has surfaced in various ways. In the past few days, however, there have been some signs of the government shaking off its inertia.

This article examines Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent decision to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip. One outraged MP on the far right suggested brazenly what many others whispered: that Mr Sharon is concerned above all to shift the spotlight from the police inquiries he and his two sons are facing over alleged financial offences. The Palestinians are understandably wary. The Muslim fundamentalists of Hamas, which is particularly strong in Gaza, said that Mr Sharon's announcement proved it was winning the struggle--and that its violence would continue. It began inside Mr Sharon's own Likud Party, where hardliners cried betrayal and demonstratively stayed away from an important Knesset vote. It also rippled through the entire political community, threatening to crack the present centre-right coalition and restore, perhaps, the Likud-Labour alliance that underpinned Mr Sharon's first term, from 2001 to 2003. Mr Sharon was still vague about timing.

On the old Middle East chessboard, the Iranian bishop and the Syrian knight were nimble allies. Often aided by their little Lebanese pawn, Hizbullah, they thwarted the ambitions of other players, including Iraq, Israel and America. But now the superpower has abruptly changed the game, and is imposing new rules. It is hardly surprising that Syria, Iran and Hizbullah should be hostile to American designs. Before the war on Iraq, Syria's foreign minister said his country had a national interest in expelling the invaders. Hassan Nasrallah, the charismatic radical who leads Hizbullah, gave ominous warning that the Americans would face the same gritty resistance from Iraqis that bled Israel when it occupied Lebanon. The swift fall of Saddam Hussein has dampened, but not extinguished, the hope that Iraq will in the end prove a costly debacle for America. Iran's and Hizbullah's hardliners still rail against America's arrogance and treachery. Iranian President Muhammad Khatami, feted by Hizbullah during a recent trip to Beirut, insisted that Iran wanted to avoid any escalation of tension in the region.

Sidelined by the 2003 Iraqi War, Russia could still win the crucial role it seeks. Until the Iraq war began, many had interpreted the mixed signals from Russia, threats from hardliners like Igor Ivanov, the foreign minister, that Russia would veto any vote in the United Nations (UN) Security Council for war, and assurances from moderates that it would not let the differences among the Moscow elite be aired. Once diplomatic channels were exhausted and the assault begun, thoughts were that Vladimir Putin would repair his friendship with U.S. President George W. Bush. Not so. Since the first strikes, Russia and America have been squaring off like boxers. Bush retorted by airing old complaints that Russian companies had broken UN sanctions on sales of military equipment to Iraq. Russia released documents with similar claims about western firms, complained about American spy-planes flying over neighboring Georgia, and its parliament put off the ratification of an arms-reduction treaty, while the criticisms and calls for a halt to hostilities in Iraq grew ever more shrill.

It looked this week as though the hardest of the hardliners was indeed wobbling, in the latest confrontation between Iran's conservatives and its reformers. On November 26th, 2002, four prime movers behind this month's student protests were arrested, apparently at the behest of the Revolutionary Court, which deals with offences that affect national security. The next morning, they were freed on the orders of the Supreme National Security Council, which contains several conservatives, as well as reformists such as the president, Muhammad Khatami. Some reformists detect signs of division among their opponents. This impression was reinforced by an apparent conflict between Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Abdulnabi Namazi, the prosecutor-general.

The article discusses the peace process in Northern Ireland and the idea that a full decommissioning by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) will save it. In its four and a half years of existence, the Good Friday Agreement has sustained many blows. Yet somehow this fragile pact, which established a devolved government in Northern Ireland and set a peace process in motion, has always managed to pick itself up and carry on. David Trimble, the leader of both the Ulster Unionist Party and the power-sharing Executive, joined with the hardliners on his party's council in passing an intentionally impossibilist motion that committed him to quitting the Executive in January 2002, thus bringing it down, if the IRA had not by then disarmed and disbanded.

Reports on the problems facing Democrats in the United States, following the Republicans' capture of the White House in the 2000 presidential election, as well as both houses of Congress. Dispute between Democratic factions, over the future course of the party; Terry McAuliffe's victory over Maynard Jackson for chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee; Disputes between Bill Clinton and Al Gore over Gore's defeat; Hardliners' opposition to Republican President George W. Bush; Ways in which Bush has neutralized the Democrats.

Discusses the alliance between Iranian president Muhammad Khatami and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Portrayal of antagonism between the two; Khamenei's role in the president's survival during July 1999 riots; Khatami's efforts at reform; How they have angered hardliners in Iran; Khatami's limits in terms of reform; Compromise required between Khamenei and Khatami.

Discusses the proliferation of sectarian murders in Pakistan as of May 1997. The history of violence between the Shias and the Sunnis; The significance of unemployment and the state of the economy; Focus on the murder of Chaudhary Ashraf Marth, the brother of the interior minister; Indications that hardliners previously loyal to Sunni and Shia groups amenable to advice from the government are beginning to break away.

Focuses on the criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Comments of Jordan's King Hussein bin Talal about Netanyahu's actions; Formation of a group that comprised of hardliners; Possibility of a constitutional amendment in Israel; Consideration for a new prime ministerial election.

The article discusses recent political developments related to military violence in Algeria. The article offers a look at the role of Islamic militants in this troubled region. Algerian hardliners, with France close behind them, claim that Islamic militancy can be stamped out, that the civil war can be won. Their supporting evidence is thin. Ever since January 1992, when the army cancelled the election about to be won by the Islamic Salvation Front, opinion has hardened. The Islamic guerrillas control swathes of the countryside, army recruits are divided and most Algerians, though fearful of Islamic extremism, despise their rulers and yearn for change.

Announces that Ernesto Zedillo has accepted the presidential candidacy of Mexico's ruling party, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Selection of the 44-year-old economist a notable victory for President Carlos Salinas; Open efforts of PRI hardliners to push their own candidates following the assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio; Questions concerning responsibility for the murder.

Discusses how one of the main battlefields in the struggle for power between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his hardline opponents in parliament is how Russia behaves towards the outside world. Hardliners bitter about Russia's loss of superpower status; Tougher stance on foreign issues; Pressure being put on Yeltsin.

Discusses how doubters have said all along that they would believe the determination of Ukraine's prime minister, Leonid Kuchma, to reform the economy only when they could hear the country's heavy-industry lobby scream. Angry ex-communist hardliners from Ukraine's rust-belt, the Donbass, descended on Kiev and demanded an emergency session of parliament. Generosity to loss-making industry's.