Over the Barrel of a Gun: Syria’s Deal With the SDF
“Our Kurdish people, descendants of Saladin, beware of believing claims that we seek harm against you,” Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said in a televised address on January 16 to Syria’s...
Nowruz
Iran’s brave protesters are fighting for freedom — here’s how Trump can help
Iran is once again convulsed by mass protest — and this time, the ground beneath the ayatollahs seems to be genuinely cracking. The end of Tehran’s totalitarian repression and...
Op-eds
Iranians Challenge the Regime by Celebrating Cyrus the Great
A tribute to an ancient and pre-Islamic king is now a form of protest against a modern Islamist theocracy. October 29 marked Cyrus the Great Day, celebrated by Iranians across the country. Though not...
Policy Briefs
Freedom for Iran: Learning From U.S. Support for Polish Anti-Communists in the 1980s
Memos
Iran’s military budget is growing: What does that mean for the Middle East?
Iran wants to increase the accuracy of its range and the overall number of its ballistic missiles.
Op-eds
Maximum Support
A New Strategic Direction for U.S. Iran Policy
Memos
U.S. Presidential Elections Loom Over the Iranian Rial
Tehran’s inflation troubles present a critical vulnerability for the clerical regime.
Op-eds
Biden’s tone-deaf Iran policy ignores what the Iranian people want: freedom, not terrorism
Persian New Year is over, but the Biden administration’s missteps continue. These own goals perfectly characterize Washington’s policy toward Tehran: inattentive and tone-deaf. Sending Iranians...
Op-eds
Iranian Rial’s Depreciation Persists Into Persian New Year
The Iranian rial struck a record low on March 24, trading at about 613,000 to the U.S. dollar in the unregulated market. Since January, the dollar has appreciated about 21 percent...
Flash Briefs
Regime in Tehran May Be Facing Internal Instability
Latest Developments Two documents reportedly produced by the Islamic Republic of Iran and obtained by Iran International shed new light on the extent of the regime’s economic woes and internal instability....
Flash Briefs
Tehran Can Afford to Fight COVID-19 Even Without Sanctions Relief
The Iranian government is leading an international campaign to pressure the United States to lift sanctions. American and European negotiators of the ill-fated Iran nuclear deal, along with dozens of pressure...
Insights
Should the United States Lift Sanctions on Iran to Address Its Coronavirus Outbreak?
Iran is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic’s leadership has engaged in a massive campaign aimed at lifting sanctions imposed on it for its malign activities,...
Memos
Coronavirus Dashes Iranian Hopes of Emerging from Multi-Year Recession
After a catastrophic year in which Iran’s clerical dictatorship watched the country’s economy shrink by 9.5 percent under pressure from U.S. sanctions, the first weeks of 2020 brought some hope that...
Insights
Spiritual Ardor and Military Might: The Story of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
This past September in an audience hall in Tehran, a prominent vocalist named Sadegh Ahangaran took to a microphone to j...
Op-eds
Analysis: To confront Iran’s jingoism and domestic repression, change its regime
The self-immolation death of an Iranian Arab last week in the province of Khuzestan offers a window onto the court of a neglected alternative to an Iran on the brink of nuclear weapons breakout:...
Op-eds
Still Needed: Regime Change in Iran
In December 2010, a Tunisian fruit-stand vendor set himself ablaze to protest the arbitrary closure of his business. Mohamed Bouazizi’s suicide sparked an upheaval in Tunisia that...
Op-eds
Engagement Is Back
President Obama’s policy of engagement with Iran is back on track–this is the core message of the president’s speech earlier today at the United Nations General Assembly....
Op-eds
Afghan Forces Thwart Unprecedented Terror Plot in Kabul
By LWJ Staff Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) forces scored a major coup on March 12, breaking up a suspected Haqqani Network terror cell that was hours away...
Op-eds
Tearing Down Iran’s Electronic Curtain
Western companies have provided the technology that enables Tehran's Internet censorship.
Op-eds
Tearing Down Iran’s Electronic Curtain
Western companies have provided the technology that enables Tehran's Internet oppression.