Elan Berman News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Distinctive characteristic, its strategic location makes it particularly important as a possible area from which israel could launch an attack or land its planes eventually. it also is a place that some suggest cultivates spies, can conduct surveillance or engage in other pursuits, whatever they are, involving international intrigue. joining us now, elan berman, vice president of the american foreign policy council and author of-tehran rising, iran's challenge to the united states", and senior international policy analyst at the rand corporation and author of "coping with a nuclearizing iran"....

Yet, at a time like this, has washington, do you think, been vocal enough? >> no, not nearly enough. quite candidly, if you look at the situation now, what happens on the streets of tehran now and in the week to come matters a great deal. it matters not only because we worry about the ideology of the iranian regime but also because there's the looming issue of iran's nuclear program and the fact that the current regime is hell bent on acquiring a nuclear capability. so what happens with regard to the protests, whether these protests really turn into a substantive change on the part of the gove...

Police now using tear gas and batons on the demonstrators, the opposition says dozens were arrested, but tehran denies that the rallies have even taken place at all. the protests against the regime urged by two of the country's opposition leaders who have not been seen in public in more than a week. now, they have been moved from house arrest to full-time detention. let's talk about it with elan berman, vice president of the american foreign policy council and author of "tehran rising". what do we know about the two opposition leaders and the circumstances under which they're being held? >> we...

Jane: interesting, though, the issue of pakistan and india was not even on the agenda here. some thought it was tootydivisie for such a large summit. is that a valid argumentsome. >> no, i think it's a valid argument. and here the administration runs, i think, the danger of becoming a victim of its own success. when you don't talk about the stability of the pakistani nuclear arsenal, when you don't talk about controversial issues line iran, for example, you really undermine the whole effort because the administration's policy towards iran, for example, has been, i would say, rather weak so far...