Khamenei Doesn’t Trust The Democrats
The Democratic Party’s recently released policy platform was greeted warmly by certain newspapers in Iran. Media outlets associated with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani praised the party’s rejection...
Hassan Rouhani
With a Potential Iran-China Deal, Time for Israel to Reassess Its Policy
A recent emerging agreement between China and Iran promises the embattled Islamic Republic a potentially regime-saving economic and security partnership. The Chinese reportedly will invest $400 billion...
Op-eds
Tehran Consolidates Hardline Gains At Home While COVID-19 Spreads
Iran experienced its highest-ever record of coronavirus-related deaths in just one day earlier this month, bringing the official number of reported deaths since late February to more than 13,000. These...
Op-eds
Proliferant States Continue to Rely on China for Nuclear-Related Equipment
A German intelligence report released last month found that Iran and other countries continue their longstanding practice of illicitly importing dual-use goods – items with both civil and military applications...
Policy Briefs
The Regime in Iran Is Struggling. It’s Time for Washington to Exploit Its Weaknesses.
The Islamic Republic has been preparing for more nationwide demonstrations. Under the guidance of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the theocracy’s praetorians,...
Insights
The Clock Is Ticking on the Next Iran Nuclear Crisis
In early June, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released two reports on the Iranian nuclear program. They make for worrisome reading. A year into its decision to start breaching the constraints...
Op-eds
The U.S. Is Right to Push to Extend the U.N. Arms Embargo on Iran
It’s not every day that Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, borrows from the lexicon of international relations theory. Highlighting the Islamic Republic’s proliferation of conventional...
Op-eds
Iran still works to obtain weapons of mass destruction tech – German intel
Iran, along with Pakistan, North Korea and Syria, aims to complete and improve existing arsenals and develop new weapons through illegal procurement efforts in Germany.
Op-eds
German intel report lays bare Iran’s attempts to obtain nuclear proliferation technology
Iran remains hell-bent on developing the deadliest weapons on the planet, according to a damning German intelligence service report released Monday. In a section titled “Proliferation,” the 181-page...
Op-eds
The JCPOA Has Not Improved Iran’s Human Rights Record
The Obama administration routinely argued that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran could spur Tehran to moderate, thereby reducing its systematic human rights abuses. But this forecast has proven unfounded:...
Policy Briefs
Who Runs Iran’s Propaganda Machine Abroad
In its efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the religious dictatorship in Tehran has been consistently negligent. Yet the regime has been remarkably eager to claim that it deserves immediate relief...
Op-eds
Iran vs. Trump: Suleimani’s Legacy, and Khamenei’s Ambitions
The supreme leader and Trump may well end the long-running, region-defining clash. We just don't know yet quite how.
Op-eds
The Islamic Revolution vs. Donald Trump
Iran and Ayatollah Khamenei are more influential today than at any time since 1979.
Op-eds
COVID-19 in Iran
Iran’s coronavirus epidemic is the worst in the Middle East. Yet the Islamic Republic has downplayed the epidemic, substantially boosted funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and state...
Policy Briefs
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...
Insights
Pandemic Spurs Iranian Regime to Escalate
Iran may be an epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but that has not kept the Islamic Republic from pursuing its rivalry with the United States more aggressively than before. The regime’s strategy...
Insights
Should the United States Lift Sanctions on Iran to Address Its Coronavirus Outbreak?
Iran is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic’s leadership has engaged in a massive campaign aimed at lifting sanctions imposed on it for its malign activities,...
Memos
Khamenei Uses Iran State TV to Turn a Profit Amid COVID-19 Outbreak
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is profiting during the coronavirus outbreak from contracts with state entities complicit in torture, according to a newly leaked video of a meeting of Iran’s...
Policy Briefs
The Coronavirus Is Absolutely No Excuse To Lift Sanctions on Iran
Exploiting Iran's coronavirus crisis to demand an end to sanctions is fundamentally dishonest—and panders to a brutal regime.
Op-eds
Torture TV: New FDD Report Makes the Case for Sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s State-Run Media
New Report Chronicles State TV’s Forced Confessions