The Three Quiet Victors of the Iran War
Turkey, Pakistan, and Qatar have played their hands well since February 28, without disrupting their relations with either the United States or Iran.
Mojtaba Khamenei
Stalled in Ukraine, Putin may try to break NATO
Dwight Eisenhower is said to have counseled that if a problem can’t be solved, you should enlarge it. Is Vladimir Putin now applying that maxim perversely? I’ll bet you a ruble the CIA...
Op-eds
Tehran’s Negotiators Are Not a Counterweight to the IRGC
Whatever separates Tehran’s senior leadership, a strategy of escalation to extract concessions from Washington unites them. President Donald Trump confirmed on August 17 that his administration has...
Policy Briefs
Checkmate In Tehran: Converting Trump’s Economic Pressure Into Victory
A reactive Iran policy need not be an unprepared one.
Op-eds
Tehran’s reshuffle leaves no pragmatic opening
upreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s latest appointments to Iran’s top security and paramilitary institutions are not routine personnel changes but a reflection of his priorities for tighter control over...
Op-eds
In Iran, the New Lineup Is the Same Hardline Regime
The latest reshuffle of Iran’s government looks less like renewal than a game of musical chairs among regime veterans. Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, whose status and capacity to...
Policy Briefs
What would Joe Biden do?
Vis-à-vis Moscow and Tehran, Trump should do the opposite
Op-eds
Pick To Run Iran’s Judiciary Shows Repression Will Live on Long After Ali Khamenei’s Death
If Iranians were hoping for a softening of the Islamic Republic’s iron rule, new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has wasted no time in disillusioning them. He has appointed Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei...
Policy Briefs
How Trump’s Understanding With Iran Echoes Obama’s 2015 Nuclear Deal
If you want to understand Iran’s negotiating posture for the new nuclear deal with the United States, listen to what Washington and Tehran said about the nuclear deal of July 2015. At the time, President...
Insights
Khamenei warily accepts US deal as Tehran eyes rebuilding Hezbollah
On June 18, the Islamic Republic’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, issued a statement on the recent memorandum of understanding between Washington...
Op-eds
Spycraft will decide Iran’s fate
Excerpt After four months of war, Israel still has targets to hit. The latest IDF raids, in this increasingly fictional ceasefire, smashed Iranian missile-defense systems and a petrochemical plant in...
Op-eds
How double-dealing Oman threatens Trump’s Mideast peace
“Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up,” President Donald Trump declared Wednesday. An apparently shocking statement about a nation long regarded as...
Op-eds
Iran Thinks It Can Still Pull Off One Last Trick
Trump Has Iran on the ropes. Now he must resist the bad deal.
Op-eds
Iran’s New ‘Nuclear’ Weapon
What happens if the U.S. declines to fight for the Strait of Hormuz.
Op-eds
In Iran, Behavior Changes Only When The Regime Does
An Islamist system built on anti-Americanism and export of terrorism will not abandon the very tools that sustain it.
Op-eds
How Iran’s Leaders Hide Their Billions
The United States and its allies around the world need to coordinate better to uncover Iran’s money laundering schemes.
Op-eds
Think we’re losing the war in Iran? Consider where things really stand
From nuclear setbacks to proxy collapse, the Islamic Republic faces its most severe strategic crisis in 47 years
Op-eds
Why Trump’s Iran cease-fire is an increasingly risky bet
President Donald Trump has indefinitely extended the cease-fire with Iran, even though the core issues that triggered the war remain unresolved. That doesn’t change one basic fact: The Islamic Republic has...
Op-eds
Iran attacks vessels in Hormuz, avoids concrete stance on ceasefire extension
After Donald Trump announced an extension of the US ceasefire with Iran on April 21, Tehran refused to take an official position on the state of the ceasefire, denied it had agreed to any extension, and...
Op-eds
The U.S. military can clear mines but not minds
Though Tehran’s capabilities are being degraded, its theology persists