Wall Street Journal: Who Read What in 2016

Steph Curry, Dava Sobel, Mike Lee, Yaa Gyasi, Abby Wambach, Jeff Bewkes and 44 more of WSJ's friends name their favorite books of 2016.

Michael Doran on the Iran deal:

...And if, on a completely unrelated topic, you sense that President Obama’s opening to Iran was ill-advised, then Jay Solomon’s “The Iran Wars” is also for you. Mr. Solomon, a Journal reporter, describes how an overeager secretary of state, John Kerry, offered up imprudent concessions while hiding the depth of the Islamic Republic’s hostility to America. Without saying it explicitly, Mr. Solomon leads you to conclude that the nuclear deal, built as it is on wishful thinking, is destined to collapse of its own weight. 
 

Mr. Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is the author of “Ike’s Gamble: America’s Rise to Dominance in the Middle East."

Washington Institute for Near East Policy: U.S.-Iranian relations

On September 7, three experts - Jay Solomon, James Dobbins, and Dennis Ross - addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute to discuss whether the contentious history of U.S.-Iranian relations stems more from unrealistic American expectations and missed opportunities, or from the Islamic Republic's strategic decision to oppose Washington's interests. Ambassador Dobbins is a former U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, among other positions. Ambassador Ross, who moderated the event, is the Institute's William Davidson Distinguished Fellow and former special assistant to President Obama. The following is a rapporteur's summary of their remarks.

Publisher's Weekly Review: The Iran Wars

Publisher's Weekly review of Jay Solomon's The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals that Reshaped the Middle East:

"Solomon, the Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, offers a timely, challenging account of the sanctions and secret negotiations that led to the July 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and the UN. Candid interviews with major figures such as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad add to Solomon’s rich analysis. For over a decade, the Bush and Obama administrations struggled with little success to contain Iran’s ambitions in the Middle East and access to nuclear power. To achieve its goals, the U.S. cut deals with Russia and China and damaged relations with allies Israel and Saudi Arabia. Solomon remains skeptical that détente with Iran is the right solution. What he calls Obama’s defining achievement in foreign policy is also, by his lights, 'among the riskiest bets made by a U.S. president in modern history.'"

Read the full review here.

Real Clear Politics

"But there are broader questions about the Obama administration’s Iran dealings than dissembling about the mechanics of hostage negotiations. They form a substantial part of Jay Solomon’s painstakingly reported book, 'The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East.' It shows that the Obama administration’s far-fetched denials of ransom payment are part and parcel of more fundamental problems."

 - Peter Berkowitz, Real Clear Politics

KIRKUS REVIEW: The Iran Wars →

“A thorough yet concise survey of Iran’s buildup of nuclear technology since the 1980s, its troubling exporting of Shiite insurgency in countries around it, and the changing American reaction. Wall Street Journal chief foreign affairs correspondent [Jay] Solomon offers an evenhanded look at the backdoor schemes involving the building of Iran’s nuclear weapons and the world players involved in and against its machinations.”

—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)