Iran’s House of Cards
The Islamic Republic’s succession games are just getting started.
Hussein-Ali Montazeri
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...
Op-eds
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...
Op-eds
Why the Coming Iranian Elections Will Challenge the Biden Administration
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei seems inclined to promote a candidate who will quash dissent over someone who could work with the West.
Op-eds
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 ...
Op-eds
In Iran, A Father And Son Vie For Nation’s Future
Ahmad Jannati and his son Ali Jannati are symbols of the growing generational gap within the political elite of Iran. Jannati the elder perceives him...
Op-eds
The Long Shadow of the Iran-Iraq War
For a conflict that still captivates much of Iran’s ruling elite, the Iran-Iraq War gets very little attention in the United States. Over the years, we’ve...
Op-eds
The Secret History of Hezbollah
Thirty years ago last month, Hezbollah blew up the barracks of the U.S Marines and French paratroopers stationed at the Beirut airport, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 Frenchmen. It wasn&rsquo...
Op-eds
The Most Dangerous Man in the World
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ali Khamenei
Op-eds
The Death of A Marja
The passing of Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah over the weekend marks the end of an era for Lebanese Shiism. What comes next, and who will attempt to fill his shoes as the leadi...
Op-eds
Iran, Beacon of Liberty?
On Thursday, the birthday of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we will see whether the democratic opposition movement has been driven underground by the increasingly brutal harassment from the supreme...
Op-eds
The Struggle for Iran
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei had a good day on February 11. If the pro-democracy Green movement had managed to send hundreds of thousands of demonstrators once again onto Tehran's streets, hi...
Op-eds
A Martyr For the Next Iranian Revolution?
When I first encountered the Persian word mofangi, I struggled to grasp its meaning. It implies a certain timidity, physical weakness, and awkwardness. Seeking to put some flesh on that definitio...
Op-eds
The Return of Weakness
President Obama means well. Iran doesn't.
Op-eds
Fear Not the Shias
By Stephen Schwartz Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani, an Iraqi American and president of the largest Shia Muslim congregation in North America, speaks perfect English. He sits with quiet dignity...