Hassan Rouhani

Canadian government policy is strengthening Iran’s malign regime

Canada should rescind its support for reviving the JCPOA nuclear deal and demand Tehran address the full range of its malevolent conduct

The Coming Sanctions Battle Over Iran’s New President

What good does it do to feign accountability over Raisi but offer impunity and financial access to a regime that has employed and promoted men like Raisi to the heights of political power?

Why Ebrahim Raisi could be ‘good for the Jews’

Similar to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his day, there are no fake smiles to the West and no illusions when it comes to Iran's president-elect. He openly states his very clear views, and it will be hard to argue, as a result, that Iran needs to be treated sympathetically.

Iranian presidential selection paves new path for nuclear extortion

Following a performative election on June 18, Iran will have a new president: the hard-line Ebrahim Raisi. Raisi’s rise will likely mean a different nuclear negotiating team after August in Vienna,...

In Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s clerics have groomed and promoted their ruthless enforcer

This month, Iran held the most boring — and most consequential — presidential election in its history. Boring because the election was rigged virtually from the start. What made it consequential is...

Iran’s Leading Presidential Candidate Has Committed Crimes Against Humanity

Even the prison guards were horrified. In the summer of 1988, at the behest of Iran’s then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the regime executed thousands of political dissidents incarcerated...

Khamenei is Iran’s most important voter, and he wants more extremism, not less

Elections have consequences, even in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nobody knows this better than Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the country’s most powerful person and most important “voter.” Through...

Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: Early May

Hezbollah’s al-Qard al-Hasan and Lebanon’s Banking Sector

Iran Is More Than Persia

Ethnic Politics in the Islamic Republic

Washington Must Confront Iran Over Sensitive Nuclear Work

With Israel’s alleged covert action against Iran’s Natanz enrichment plant on April 11, Tehran’s latest breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal are in danger of premature burial by the news cycle. Yet the...

Iran, Terrorism Finance, and Money Laundering: A Status Update Before FATF Meets Next Week

When the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) convenes its plenary next week, while not formally on the agenda, buzz on the sidelines will concern Tehran’s constant push to be removed from the FATF blacklist....

Shining a Light on the Iran Deal’s Sunset Problem

If the new administration is serious about reinvigorated diplomacy, it must resist Iran’s nuclear extortion and forgo the temptation of re-joining the JCPOA. Breathing life into an expiring accord will not help dampen the Islamic Republic’s nuclear, missile, and military threats.

Iran is already winning

The ayatollahs are smiling

Turkey

The Olympics must ban Iran

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and United World Wrestling (UWW) — the global governing body for amateur wrestling—squandered a chance to save the life of Navid Afkari, the Iranian champion put...

Trump’s Iran Achievement

Among Donald Trump’s proudest achievements as president was his withdrawal of the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), his predecessor’s nuclear agreement with Iran. The...

Countering the Iranian Threat in the Persian Gulf

Parsing Iranian Responses to the Killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi

2020 has proven to be a tough year for the Islamic Republic of Iran. It began with the killing of its most important general and terrorist mastermind, Qassem Soleimani, and now appears to be ending...

Fakhrizadeh Assassination Underscores Iran’s Refusal to Come Clean About Nuclear Weapons Activities

The assassination last week of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh eliminated the leading source of institutional knowledge about the Tehran regime’s once-flourishing nuclear weapons program....