Mehdi Karroubi

June 14, 2021 | Saeed Ghasseminejad, Behnam Ben Taleblu

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...

April 14, 2020 | Eric S. Edelman, Ray Takeyh

The Next Iranian Revolution

Why Washington Should Seek Regime Change in Tehran

August 9, 2018 | Tzvi Kahn |

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.

June 23, 2017 | Reuel Marc Gerecht |

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...

May 17, 2017 | Reuel Marc Gerecht |

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...

April 7, 2017 | Reuel Marc Gerecht |

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...

July 12, 2016 | |

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...

March 4, 2016 | Saeed Ghasseminejad |

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 ...

January 21, 2016 | Emanuele Ottolenghi, Saeed Ghasseminejad

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...

December 11, 2015 | Saeed Ghasseminejad |

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...

May 29, 2015 | Reuel Marc Gerecht |

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...

May 19, 2015 | |

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...

May 4, 2015 |

Iran Under President Rouhani: Nuclear Negotiations, Regime Insecurity and Increased Suppression

Download full text here  Introduction...

May 1, 2015 | Michael Ledeen |

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...

December 29, 2014 | Michael Ledeen |

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...

August 7, 2014 | Michael Ledeen |

Iran’s War, and Ours, From Gaza to Caracas

The Islamic Jihad spokesman knew what he was talking about.  His own...

June 24, 2014 | Benjamin Weinthal |

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...

December 6, 2013 | Michael Ledeen |

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...

November 18, 2013 | FDD Policy Brief |

The Iranian Media Reacts to Geneva

With the next round of Geneva negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 looming, Iran’s press is divided.  On one side, mouthpieces of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutiona...

August 21, 2013 | Michael Ledeen |

It’s War, You Idiots

It’s hard to get our minds around the dimensions of the slaughter underway in the Middle East and Africa, and harder still to see that the battlefields of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, S...