Mehdi Karroubi
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...
Op-eds
The Next Iranian Revolution
Why Washington Should Seek Regime Change in Tehran
Op-eds
The Revolutionary Guard’s Disinformation Campaign to Dominate Iran’s Economy
hen Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was formed shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution,[note][1] Mohsen Sazegara, “The Revolutionary Guard and the Three Perversions,” Personal...
Op-eds
Censorship and Sanctions: Should the US Sanction Iran’s Minister of Culture?
This past April, the Iranian regime announced an ostensible concession to the country’s beleaguered, long-censored journalists: Tehran would offer 100 of them unrestricted internet access. But there was a catch: The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MCIG) would need to vet all candidates for loyalty to the regime’s Islamist ideology.
Op-eds
Tehran’s Own Worst Enemy
It’s easy for scholarly books that go against the Zeitgeist to slip by unnoticed, but it would be a mistake to overlook Misagh Parsa’s “Democracy in Iran: Why It Failed and How...
Op-eds
In Iran’s Election, Americans Should Root for the ‘Hard-Liner’
In Washington there is a consensus that the re-election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is in the best interests of the U.S. Most find the self-avowed pragmatic cleric, who championed the 201...
Op-eds
How Trump can help cripple the Iranian regime
A consensus has developed in Washington for some “push back” against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Democrats and Republicans would be well-advised to learn fr...
Op-eds
Why Are These IRGC Figures Not Sanctioned?
The White House promised Congress last summer that the Iran nuclear accord would not prevent the United States from imposing additional non-nuclear sanctions. Yet Ambassador Stephen Mull, the adm...
Policy Briefs
Iran’s False Choice: Rebranding Hard-Liners as ‘Moderates’
Iranians went to the ballot box last Friday to cast their votes for the Assembly of Experts and the Majles, Iran’s parliament. Reading ...
Op-eds
Hardliners Set to Dominate Iran’s February Elections
The Obama administration hopes that the Iran nuclear deal reached last July can “strengthen the hand” of Iran&rs...
Policy Briefs
How Iran’s Mafia-Like Revolutionary Guard Rules The Country’s Black Market
The revolutionary children of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Pasdaran, were the poor, marginalized thugs of the Shah's era, people with a huge appetite for violence. They founded the Islamic Re...
Op-eds
Transformational Diplomacy
Many supporters of an Iranian nuclear agreement believe that a deal could help to moderate, even democratize, Iranian society. Barack Obama’s constant allusions to the transformative potent...
Op-eds
Ali Alfoneh: Tehran’s Brutal Crackdown Continues
Almost two years into the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, and just as long after the start of the latest round of nuclear negotiations with Tehran, human rights in Iran show no signs of improvement...
Op-eds
Iran Under President Rouhani: Nuclear Negotiations, Regime Insecurity and Increased Suppression
Download full text here Introduction...
Congressional Testimonies
Iran’s Greatest Vulnerability
Iran is on the march all over the world, from Syria and Iraq to Venezuela and Cuba (where they have a Hezbollah base). Except when they unceremoniously retreat, as in recent days when their floti...
Op-eds
The Iranian Death Spiral (Continued)
I don’t believe that economic misery brings down regimes. The pidgin Marxism that passes for serious analysis among all too many of our deep thinkers would have us believe that misery...
Op-eds
Iran’s War, and Ours, From Gaza to Caracas
The Islamic Jihad spokesman knew what he was talking about. His own...
Op-eds
Don’t Forget Sexual Minorities In Iran
Co-authored by Arsham Parsi While the world powers prepare for a July negotiation session with Iran over its illicit nuclear program, the deteriorating situation for sexual mino...
Op-eds
Dare We Say It? The Mullahs Must Go
Sanctions and diplomacy have thus far failed to induce the Iranian regime to cease its nuclear weapons program. We shouldn’t be surprised by this. Top Iranian leaders, from Supreme Leader A...