Astan Quds Razavi

May 19, 2024 | |

Iranian President’s Helicopter Crashes, Condition Unknown

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian crashed in Iran on May 19. Iranian personnel are still searching for the aircraft,...

April 1, 2024 | Saeed Ghasseminejad, Behnam Ben Taleblu

Reading the Tea Leaves on Iran’s Other “Election”

The newly “re-elected” Assembly of Experts will play a large part in determining Iran’s post-Khamenei leadership.

September 18, 2023 | |

Iran’s President Raisi to Address UN Despite Record of Atrocities

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, September 19. The planned speech comes despite Raisi’s record of human rights...

January 10, 2022 | Saeed Ghasseminejad |

Iran’s Inflation Rate in 2022 Will Depend on Fate of Nuclear Negotiations

Iran’s annual inflation rate in 2021 was 43.4 percent, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, but President Ebrahim Raisi is determined to reduce inflation in 2022, since high inflation harms the...

December 2, 2020 | Saeed Ghasseminejad |

Key Targets Remain for U.S. Sanctions on Iran

The U.S. Department of the Treasury last week sanctioned the Mustazafan Foundation, one of three critical holdings in the business empire of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Trump administration,...

April 8, 2020 | Mark Dubowitz, Saeed Ghasseminejad

Tehran Can Afford to Fight COVID-19 Even Without Sanctions Relief

The Iranian government is leading an international campaign to pressure the United States to lift sanctions. American and European negotiators of the ill-fated Iran nuclear deal, along with dozens of pressure...

January 24, 2020 | Saeed Ghasseminejad |

U.S. Maximum Pressure Campaign Should Target Tehran Stock Exchange and Khamenei’s Business Empire

The office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced last week that additional entities under its control would go public on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), enabling them to access capital more effectively....

September 15, 2018 | Tzvi Kahn |

The U.S. Should Sanction Iran’s Key Slush Fund and Its Brutal Custodian

At first, he couldn’t identify the sound. But Amir Atiabi, an inmate in Iran’s Gohardasht Prison, was curious. Over the course of several nights in 1988, he ...

January 22, 2018 | Mark Dubowitz, Saeed Ghasseminejad

Hit Ayatollah Khamenei in His Pocketbook

The Trump administration already has offered rhetorical support to Iran’s antigovernment protesters. Now, nearly a month after the demonstrations began, how can the U.S. provide material he...

May 15, 2017 | Behnam Ben Taleblu |

Tehran mayor leaves Iran’s presidential race to back fellow conservative in bid to unseat Rouhani

Iranian presidential hopeful Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf withdrew Monday from the race to unseat the country’s moderate leader, in a move to unite conservatives behind fellow hard-liner Ebrahi...

March 21, 2016 | Saeed Ghasseminejad |

Khamenei’s Latest Moves to Solidify Hardline Gains

The legendary cleric Abbas Vaez Tabasi died this month after thirty-seven years supe...