WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama named his first appointment Thursday, Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, a somewhat behind the scene, but all-powerful position. Many say the chief of staff is the second-most powerful job after the president.

AMMAN – Until recently it was unthinkable that dialogue with the Taliban was an option to bring peace to war-torn Afghanistan. But today it is considered that talking to the militant organization, which has made a dangerous comeback, is better than fighting it.

The U.S. helicopter commando raid into Syria Sunday raises a host of questions? The answers are troubling.

MOSCOW -- The Iraqi council of ministers has decided to introduce new amendments to the draft of the U.S.-Iraqi strategic partnership agreement concerning the possible withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. This will inevitably result in the resumption of U.S.-Iraqi talks, despite the fact that the parties had already stated they reached a compromise that was to be officially adopted only.

In two weeks Americans will elect their next president. The whole world is watching the U.S. elections with a great deal of interest. In particular the international community is anxiously waiting to see how the United States will deal with Iran.

Saudi Arabia is involved in a very welcome diplomatic initiative aiding Pakistan at the moment. The George W. Bush administration, predictably, is furious that Riyadh has taken the lead in hosting peace talks between the embattled, U.S.-supported Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai and the resurgent Taliban.

Sen. Barack Obama, looking set to become the next U.S. president, has pledged to shift the focus of the war on terror to Afghanistan, committing more U.S. troops there. This would be the "right" war as opposed to the "wrong" war, in Iraq, that he has consistently criticized. But it is a judgment he may come to regret. Afghanistan could turn out to be his Iraq.

A series of meetings between United States and Syrian diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterpart, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, at the United Nations last week are stirring speculation that Washington may at last be moving toward engaging Damascus.

One of the first puzzles that new students of philosophy at Oxford University were posed by their tutors was to say what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? The answer, of course, is that the words are wrong. The definitions make no sense. If something is irresistible, then it can move any object. If something is immoveable, then the force can be resisted. But there appears to be a growing prospect of such a contradictory experiment being carried out over the skies of the Middle East in the five dangerous months that remain of the U.S. administration of George W. Bush.

Irans nuclear ambition is not only about national pride and confrontation with the West. First and foremost it is a race for power and influence between two generations and two competing trends within Iranian politics.