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July 13, 2016 Turkey’s Illicit Finance Trap Co-written by Yagmur Menzilcioglu While not widely reported in the West, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım last month submitted to parliament a... July 12, 2016 Why Are These IRGC Figures Not Sanctioned? The White House promised Congress last summer that the Iran nuclear accord would not prevent the United States from imposing additional non-nuclear sanctions. Yet Ambassador Stephen Mull, the adm... July 11, 2016 Taxing American Businesses that Partner with Iran American businesses have been looking to break into the Iranian market ever since the signing of last summer’s nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Major firms... July 8, 2016 Post-JCPOA, Iran Revs Up Nuclear, Missile Procurement in Germany On the eve of the Iran deal’s one-year anniversary, a new report by... July 5, 2016 Attacks Highlight Terrorists’ Goals in Saudi Arabia, but Also Limits Suicide bombers struck three Saudi cities on Monday, detonating themselves near the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, a U.S. diplomatic facility in Jeddah, and a Shiite mosque in the eastern city... July 5, 2016 The John Batchelor Show FDD senior fellows Aykan Erdemir and Jonathan Schanzer joined the John Batchelor show to comment on the Istanbul airport attack and the Iran-Boeing deal. ... June 30, 2016 Istanbul Attack Must Prompt Tougher Turkish IS Policy Three suicide bombers attacked the Istanbul Ataturk international airport Tuesday night, killing 43 people, including... June 30, 2016 Now Is Not The Time To Lift Sanctions On Iran The Islamic Republic of Iran is energetically trying to legitimize its financial sector despite a decades-long rap sheet of illicit financial activities. Since the conclusion of the nuclear deal,... June 24, 2016 Erdoğan’s New Assault on Turkey’s Judiciary Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım submitted to parliament a government bill on June 13 that would redesign Turkey’... June 24, 2016 Iran is Still a Business Risk: Implications of FATF’s Decision Following its plenary meeting this week, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is set to... June 17, 2016 The Iran-Boeing Deal: Rewards and Risks Iran’s minister of transport, Abbas Akhoundi, announced an aircraft deal this week with... June 17, 2016 Protesting Turkish Students Push Back on Erdoğan Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won a string of victories last month in his effort to consolidate power, including the... June 13, 2016 Hezbollah’s Incendiary Threat to Lebanon’s Banks On Sunday night, a bomb detonated outside the Banque du Liban et d’Outre-Mer (BLOM), in the... June 3, 2016 Iran Doubles Down on its Military Budget Iran’s Guardian Council on May 18... June 3, 2016 Supreme Leader’s Confidant Is Re-elected Parliament Speaker Iran’s parliament re-elected Ali Larijani as parliamentary speaker on Tuesday. Larijani,... May 26, 2016 How Iran Taints the Dollar For the past two months, a debate has raged between the Obama administration and Congress over whether last summer’s nuclear deal provides Tehran access to dollars outside of the U.S. finan... May 25, 2016 A Hardliner’s Hardliner Wins Assembly of Experts Chair The Assembly of Experts, the body charged with choosing Iran’s supreme leader, selected one of the Islami... May 19, 2016 Erdoğan’s Reckless Referendum Ploy The Turkish Parliament on Tuesday held the first of... May 19, 2016 Service-Based Money Laundering: The Next Illicit Finance Frontier Just a few months before the summer Olympic Games in Brazil,... May 13, 2016 Hezbollah Military Commander Killed in Syria Mustafa Badreddine, Hezbollah’s military commander, was killed in Syria on Thursday night according to Lebanese television channels close to Hezbollah. Al-Mayadeen TV claimed Badreddine was... May 5, 2016 Turkish Prime Minister Falls Victim to Palace Coup After a week of open strife within the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erd... May 5, 2016 Iran’s Parliamentary Elections are No Victory for “Moderates” Iranians cast their votes Friday in runoff elections for the quarter of parliamentary seats still in contention from February’s first round. The complete tally... May 3, 2016 Turkey Moves to Strip Kurdish Deputies’ Immunity Turkey set the stage for stripping Kurdish parliamentarians of their immunity Monday, when a parliamentary committee... April 28, 2016 IAEA Takes a Light Touch on Iran’s Heavy Water The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the international community... April 22, 2016 Iran Space Launch Underscores Patient ICBM Plan Iran launched a new satellite rocket called “the Simorgh” on Tuesday, according to U.S. officials. Th... April 15, 2016 Iran’s Center for Illicit Finance Iranian Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif is in Washington this week to attend summits at the... April 8, 2016 Ankara’s Path to Moscow May Run through Jerusalem As Turkey and Israel negotiate a long-awaited rapprochement, senior Israeli security sources have reportedly complained that Ankara is seeking r... April 7, 2016 U.S. mulls pulling Sinai peacekeeping force The United States is considering pulling its roughly 700 troops out of a base its forces have occupied for three decades in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, CNN... April 7, 2016 Hezbollah’s Sunni Support Network Hezbollah announced the death this weekend of seven of its fighters in Syria during fighting in southern Aleppo.... April 1, 2016 The White House Cedes More, Even As Iran’s Economy Recovers While U.S. and European diplomats celebrated the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action last summer, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his government saw that deal as not... March 31, 2016 Don’t Politicize Sanctions In a speech yesterday before the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew argue... March 31, 2016 Treasury Prepares to Take Dollarized Transactions with Iran Offshore In a potential move that is raising concern among many in Congress, the Treasury Department is considering lifting a longstanding ban on Iranian access to dollar transactions, according to... March 30, 2016 Erdogan’s Washington Visit Overshadowed by Sanction-Buster’s Arrest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in Washington for a five-day trip geared around the White House’s two-day nuclear security summit on Thursday and Friday. The duration of his visit... March 30, 2016 Green Lighting the Greenback In the past two weeks, Congress has pressed Treasury Secretary Ja... March 29, 2016 Russia Flexes its Muscle in Dispute with Japan Russia’s defense minister announced last week that Russia would deploy an advanced coastal-defense missile system and unmanned aeri... March 23, 2016 Palestinian Prime Minister Acknowledges Torture In an interview that somehow failed to make headlines, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah admitted last week that torture occurs in PA facilities. Hamdallah, speaking on... March 10, 2016 Iranian Weapons Smuggling in the Arabian Peninsula Continues An American-led maritime coalition recently intercepted a fishing boat carrying weapons off the coast of Oman, according to news reports on Monday. U.S. officials... March 9, 2016 IRGC’s Latest Ballistic Missile Test Underscores Need for Sanctions Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) held a series of ballistic missiles drills over the last few days,... March 7, 2016 With Iran Visit, Turkish PM Hopes to Preserve Tenuous Status Quo Turkish premier Ahmet Davutoglu paid his first official visit to Iran as prime minister this weekend. Following his meeting with Iran's First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, news reports... March 4, 2016 Erdogan’s War on Media Enters a New Phase The Turkish government continued its systematic crackdown on independent media today, taking over... February 29, 2016 Abbas’ Attacks on Lawmaker are Another Sign of Growing Autocracy Palestinian lawmaker Najat Abu Bakr took refuge in the building of the defunct Palestinian Authority parliament on Friday after PA security services... February 26, 2016 Iran’s Assembly of Experts Election: A Foregone Conclusion Iranians go to the ballot box today to cast votes in two elections: one for the Assembly of Experts and the other for parliament. The former is charged with choosing and supervising the supreme l... February 26, 2016 Iran’s Principlists to Dominate Elections Analyses in U.S. media suggest today’s Iranian parliamentary election is a decisive battle between hard-lin... February 19, 2016 PKK Offshoot Claims Ankara Attack The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (Teyrênbazê Azadiya Kurdistan, or TAK), a terrorist group that broke away from Turkey’s militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2004,... February 15, 2016 Gulf States Pledge Forces for Syria, but Challenges Remain Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates made new military commitments this week at a defense summit in Brussels,... February 12, 2016 Global Banks Wrestle with Iran’s Return The Bank of England, according to a report from the Financial Times last week, reacti... February 10, 2016 Divisions within Turkey’s Opposition Extend Erdoğan’s Rule The Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s main secular opposition against the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), held its party congress last month, where it... February 3, 2016 Nuclear Deal Paves Way for Iran-Russia Ballistic Missile Cooperation Since the start of talks over Iran’s nuclear program over two years ago, Russia and Iran have moved towards deepening economic and strategic ties... January 21, 2016 Hardliners Set to Dominate Iran’s February Elections The Obama administration hopes that the Iran nuclear deal reached last July can “strengthen the hand” of Iran&rs... January 20, 2016 Congress Mulls Next Steps as Iran Sanctions Unwind On January 16, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran had met its preliminary nuclear commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal. The...

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