Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq talked about governance and security in his country. He said the U.S. has a moral and legal responsibility to Iraq after invading and destroying the country to remove Saddam Hussein’s regime. He named sectarianism and corruption as major problems. He also mentioned a recent surge in violence in Iraq, which he blamed in part on Syria and Iran.

Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman and other witnesses testified at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing about the civil unrest and growing ethnic violence in South Sudan.

David Ignatius and Robin Wright talked about their recent trip to Iran to assess Iran’s internal politics since President Rouhani took office. Topics included the implications of the nuclear agreement talks that were resuming in Geneva that day. They were interviewed by former Ambassador William Taylor and responded to questions from members of the audience. The event “Inside Iran” was held at the U.S. Institute of Peace, co-sponsored by the Wilson Center.

Thousands of people have fled the ongoing fighting in South Sudan and the death toll is now believed to be approaching 10,000. France 24’s Philip Crowther speaks to former US Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Princeton Lyman about ethnic divisions, ceasefire talks and what the US could have done to prevent the violence erupting.

One of Iraq’s top Sunni Muslim leaders on Tuesday delivered a pointed message to Washington: The United States has a moral responsibility to help defeat Iraq’s twin ills of sectarianism and terrorism because those forces were unleashed by the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/01/14/214495/sunni-politician-us-broke-iraq.html#storylink=cpy

Jeffrey Goldberg and Robin Wright talk about John Kerry’s push for the peace process in the Middle East and the nuclear agreement in Iran.

Relations between Obama and Kiir "never really healed" after that, said Princeton Lyman, the U.S. envoy for Sudan at the time. The two presidents have not met since.

Sheldon Himelfarb, the director of USIP’s PeaceTech Initiative, which sponsored the research, talked with Syria Deeply about his team’s process and findings.