The Iran-Boeing Deal: Rewards and Risks
Iran’s minister of transport, Abbas Akhoundi, announced an aircraft deal this week with...
Najaf
After Saddam Was Hanged
Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, no voice arguing for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein had greater moral weight than that of Kanan Makiya. As Dexter Filkins put it in a 2007 New York Times Magazi...
Op-eds
What to Do When Your Man Just Won’t Commit, Baghdad Edition
I've been highly critical of President Barack Obama’s tenure as America’s commander in chief. But his shortcomings in this regard hardly came as a shock. Start your presidency wi...
Op-eds
Iran’s ISIS Trap
Co-written with Ray Takeyh The choice seems simple. On one side are regally attired mullahs, the type that have protected Persia’s pre-Islamic treasures and even tweet in...
Op-eds
The IRGC’s New Deployment Pattern
The October 7th death of Brigadier-General Hossein Hamedani, the most senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander killed in the Syrian war, underlines Iran’s growing military...
Op-eds
Ben Carson says Mahmoud Abbas, Ali Khamenei, Vladimir Putin knew each other in 1968 Moscow
It sounds like the opening to a joke: A young Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk into a Soviet-era Moscow university &...
Op-eds
The Wings of War
When Mahan Air, Iran’s largest private airline, bought nine used Airbus aircraft last May, Iranians celebrated the opportunity to upgrade their country’s aging, sanctions-hit commerci...
Op-eds
Iran’s Succession Crisis Overshadows Nuclear Pact
The July 14th Vienna agreement between Iran and global powers may, at least for a time, contain the crisis over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme but an impending succession battle i...
Op-eds
Iran Embarks On Middle East Charm Offensive – Will It Work?
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and his Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif have each ...
Op-eds
Afghanistan: The Next Battlefield?
“We will maintain a presence in Afghanistan, even after the end of our current mission,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced. The Atlantic alliance, he said, w...
Op-eds
Iran’s Succession Battle: Does it Matter?
Mohammad Yazdi, a hardline ayatollah and former Judiciary chief, was elected chairman of Iran’s Assembly of...
Policy Briefs
The Man And The Myth
Urbi et Orbi, the city and the world, Tehran and the globe. In his turban and clerical robe, softly speaking of peace, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, resembles a spiritual guide mor...
Op-eds
Negotiating with Ourselves
Analyzing the Islamic Republic isn’t a guessing game—at least it shouldn’t be. Iranian Islamists’ words and deeds are pretty consistent. Memoirs, speeches, and biographies...
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
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
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
Are We Safer?
Yes, George W. Bush has made America more secure since 9/11.
Op-eds
The First Time
Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia by Charles Townshend Belknap Press, 624 pp., $35 THIS BOOK IS an exquisite history of the excruciatingly diffi...
Op-eds
The Press Botches Basra
Less than 48 hours after Iraqi security forces began their campaign against militant Shia factions in Basra, the media had already declared the operations a failure. The operations, which were in...
Op-eds
Moussa Sadr and the Islamic Revolution in Iran… and Lebanon
Last Tuesday marked the anniversary of the disappearance of Shia cleric Moussa as-Sadr—often dubbed the father of the Shia resurgence in Lebanon—during a visit to Libya in 1978. While...