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Arshad Mohammed
For Arshad Mohammed's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Oval Office in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 5, 2024
Biden ultimatum to Netanyahu: protect Gaza civilians, or else
Analysts said the implicit threat was to slow U.S. arms transfers to Israel or to temper U.S. support at the U.N.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits an aerospace company in Korolyov, outside Moscow, in October last year.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 16, 2024
Russia seen as highly unlikely to put a nuclear warhead in space
A space threat identified by the U.S. could potentially be used for electromagnetic pulses to fry satellites' electronics.
A man photographs parts of an unidentified missile on Saturday, which Ukrainian authorities believe to have been made in North Korea and which was used in a strike in Kharkiv earlier this week.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 11, 2024
Ukraine is 'test site' for North Korean missiles: Seoul
Moscow and Pyongyang have both denied conducting any arms deals but they vowed last year to deepen military relations.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Hamas' top leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in June. Both men met again in early November during which the former told the latter that Iran would not intervene directly following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 16, 2023
Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' against Israel faces trial by fire
Iran has built a military alliance over four decades to oppose Israeli and American power in the Middle East.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a public rally in Mashhad, Iran, in March.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 22, 2023
Iran's quandary: How to stay out of Israel's war on Hamas
Standing on the sidelines in the face of an all-out Israeli invasion of Gaza would significantly set back an Iranian strategy for regional ascendancy.
President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran at a news conference during the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Sep 21, 2023
Qatar held separate bilateral talks with U.S. and Iran
Qatar held talks with the United States and Iran that touched on Iran's nuclear program and U.S. concerns about Iranian drone transfers to Russia.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 29, 2023
EU intends to maintain missile sanctions on Iran beyond expiry of 2015 pact
Current measures that limit Tehran's nuclear program in return for relief from economic controls are set to expire on Oct. 18 under a U.N. resolution that enshrined the earlier deal.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
May 8, 2023
Smoldering Iran nuclear crisis risks catching fire
A renewed crisis over Iran would come at a bad time for the U.S., which is focused on maintaining allies' support for the war in Ukraine and on rallying countries to push back on China.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 25, 2022
Why Russia and Ukraine are fighting for Chernobyl disaster site
Chernobyl sits on the shortest route from Belarus to Kyiv, Ukrainian's capital, and so runs along a logical line of attack for the Russian forces invading Ukraine.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Nov 19, 2021
Unspoken U.S. aim at Iran nuclear talks may be winning Chinese and Russian support
One way to pressure Iran to rejoin the original pact or accept another arrangement would be to persuade Beijing and Moscow that Tehran, not Washington, is the obstacle, diplomats said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 12, 2021
Wielding fresh leverage, Iran to play hardball at nuclear talks
The stakes are high, since failure to revive the 2015 nuclear deal would carry the risk of a fresh regional war.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 22, 2021
Road to renewed Iran nuclear deal likely to be long and bumpy
It took seven years from the summer's day in 2008 when a top U.S. diplomat first sat down with his Iranian counterpart until the two sides sealed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that aimed to keep Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Mar 1, 2019
As Trump returns empty-handed from summit with Kim, some in Washington breathe sigh of relief
Among some U.S. officials, congressional aides, analysts and others who track North Korea, there was a sigh of relief Thursday as President Donald Trump headed home from Vietnam empty-handed from his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 19, 2018
U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo works to replenish diplomatic ranks, restore morale after cuts under Tillerson
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has nearly doubled promotions of top American diplomats as he seeks to restore work relations with a staff alienated by his predecessor, Rex Tillerson.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
May 25, 2018
Canceled Trump-Kim summit could return U.S., North Korea to crisis mode
President Donald Trump's cancellation of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un risks a return to crisis mode between Washington and Pyongyang, but both sides may be wary of letting the situation escalate into fears of war, as it did last year.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 14, 2017
Some Trump assertions on Iran questioned by experts
In Friday's speech laying out his strategy toward Iran and his decision not to certify it is complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump made a series of statements that analysts questioned.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2017
Trump aides' bid to plug leaks creates unease among some civil servants
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin used his first senior staff meeting last month to tell his aides he would not tolerate leaks to the news media, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Jan 4, 2017
Trump's North Korea red line could come back to haunt him
In three words of a tweet this week, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed North Korea would never test an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 16, 2015
U.S., Iran finesse inspections of military sites in nuclear deal
Major powers and Iran finessed how U.N. inspectors will get access to Iranian military sites in Tuesday's nuclear agreement, with a formula that gives the United Nations strong inspection powers while allowing Tehran to save face.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 21, 2014
How U.S. worsened its Putin problem
In September 2001, as the U.S. reeled from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Vladimir Putin supported Washington's imminent invasion of Afghanistan in ways that would have been inconceivable during the Cold War.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on