Saudis Stung by Obama Iran Initiative
President Obama’s Friday telephone call with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani—the first at such a level in over three decades—has exacerbated existing problems between the Unite...
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The New Rouhani
Assessing contemporary figures on the world stage is tricky business. It takes time to properly reflect on what a man has done, and judgments based on brief acquaintance are often wrong. So it wa...
Op-eds
Rouhani’s Corrupt Cabinet
Co-authored by Saeed Ghasseminejad Most Western observers welcomed the end of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s term with a sigh of relief, interpreting new p...
Policy Briefs
First Impressions on Rouhani’s Speech
Here’s how Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s U.N. speech struck five Foundation for Defense of Democracies scholars: Ali...
Op-eds
Rouhani’s World
Whatever comes out of the UN General Assembly session this week, Hasan Rouhani is the star of the show. Nothing new or surprising there; so was his predecessor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who...
Op-eds
The Battle of Syria
Twelve years ago today, we were staring at smoking rubble in downtown Manhattan and at the Pentagon, counting the dead, wondering who had committed this atrocity and why, fearful of what they mig...
Op-eds
Iran’s Got a New President — But the Same Old Problems
The election of Iranian President Hasan Rouhani has created an atmosphere of hope and optimism, both at home and abroad, not seen since Mohammad Khatami's landslide victory in 1997. Ignoring...
Op-eds
Iran’s New Central Bank Chief
President Hassan Rouhani this week...
Policy Briefs
President Rouhani’s Cabinet: MOIS vs. IRGC?
President Hassan Rouhani presented his cabinet to the Iranian parliament on August 4. His team is c...
Policy Briefs
All the President’s Men: Rouhani’s Cabinet
President Hassan Rouhani presented his cabinet yesterday to the Iranian Majles. It remains to be seen if the parliament will approve R...
Policy Briefs
Iran’s ‘Moderate’ New President Still Supports Assad
In Iran and abroad, the election of President Hassan Rouhani has created an atmosphere of optimism not seen since Mohammad Khatami's presidency, which ended in 2005 in disappointment for Kha...
Op-eds
The Iran-Syria Nexus and its Implications for the Region
Introduction Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member Deutch, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify today about Iran&rs...
Congressional Testimonies
Wishing for an Iranian Moderate
There’s nothing wrong with wishful thinking — unless it gets confused with serious thinking. Policy makers and legislators have a professional responsibility to resist that temptation...
Op-eds
Iranian Election Reflections (Part 1)
Author's note: I've been sidetracked by some other projects, but wanted to offer some belated thoughts on the recent presidential election in Iran. Today I�...
Op-eds
Iran’s Latin America Strategy
Speaking in Washington at the annual dinner of the American Jewish Committee in May 2007, Argentina’s then-senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner publicly reiterated her unwavering commitme...
Op-eds
Terror and Foreign Policy
Co-authored by Douglas Farah Earlier this month, Alberto Nisman of Argentina, the special prosecutor responsible for investigating the Iranian-planned 1994 bombing of a Jewish c...
Op-eds
Meet the New Mullah
Iranians aren’t wrong to celebrate the presidential victory of Hassan Rouhani. It is a (small) thumb in the eye of the country’s clerical ruler, Ali Khamenei. Leaving aside foreign af...
Op-eds
Why You Shouldn’t Get Too Excited About Rouhani
Good riddance: The end of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad era should be welcomed by all who want to see a free and democratic Iran and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing nuclear crisis with Tehran. But...
Op-eds
Iran’s Meaningless Presidential Elections
The Islamic Republic of Iran is holding its eleventh presidential election on Friday. It’s all very exciting — just as it was in 1979 when, right after the Iranian Revolution that bro...
Op-eds
Iran’s Next President Won’t Be a ‘Moderate’
Co-authored by Saeed Ghasseminejad When Iranian voters go to the polls to elect a new president on June 14, their choice will not matter in any real sense: Whoever wins the cont...