Grant F. Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, discusses the IRmep commissioned poll showing Americans believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be investigated for nuclear weapons tech smuggling before he is allowed to visit the US.

Giorgio Cafiero, founder of Gulf State Analytics, discusses how Sunni-Shia sectarian tensions could be inflamed across the Middle East if Saudi Arabia carries out its death sentence on popular Shi'ite cleric and political dissident Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr.

Muhammad Sahimi, professor of chemical engineering at USC, discusses his article "Washington's Hawks Provide Ammunition for Tehran's Hawks;" and why a failed Iran nuclear deal would probably cause Iran's moderate President Rouhani to be replaced by an Ahmadinejad clone.  

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the government's persecution of CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling, who faces 80 years in prison on unproven, circumstantial evidence under the Espionage Act, related to his communication with journalist James Risen about the CIA's Merlin operation against Iran.

Gareth Porter, an award-winning independent journalist and historian, discusses the Obama administration's change of heart on Syria policy, where they are no longer entertaining the fantasy that "moderates" will depose President Assad and defeat the radical Islamists also.

Mitchell Prothero, a McClatchy Foreign Staff journalist, discusses the Islamic State's apparent overreach in Kobani (Syria) where Kurdish fighters backed by US airstrikes forced their retreat.

Adam Morrow, a Cairo-based journalist with IPS News, discusses the Egyptian government's violent crackdown on protests commemorating the 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak; and the beginnings of another revolution against Egypt's new military dictatorship.