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Daybreak: Iran Thaw?

Plus Meshaal in Amman, elections in Israel, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
January 30, 2012

• Iran reportedly offered to extend a three-day visit by international nuclear inspectors, in what would be seen as an effort to calm recent tensions. [NYT]

• Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged that it would take Iran about a year to actually develop a nuclear weapon—if it decided to. That decision, he added, is the United States’ red line. [Haaretz]

• Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, having effectively abandoned Damascus, visited King Abdullah II in Amman, in a sign of reconciliation between estranged allies who both have reasons to be friends (but not too good friends) again. [NYT]

• The chatter in Israel is of early elections. The thinking is that Prime Minister Netanyahu will call them while his popularity is high and before the U.S. elections. [LAT]

• Russia is, like, absurdly good to the Assad regime. [NYT]

• An Israeli documentary about the legal system in the West Bank won the prize for best documentary at Sundance. [Haaretz]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.