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...
Iraq relies on oil revenue for over 90 percent of its budget. With exports hovering at around half of the usual 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) that were exported before Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz,...
All the noise around Iran’s supposed stranglehold on oil supplies transiting through the Strait of Hormuz is missing the point. The reality is that the combination of Operations Midnight...
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...
Iranian authorities hanged two individuals in public who participated in the January 2026 Lion and Sun Revolution, the largest anti-regime uprising in the Islamic Republic’s history, in which millions...
“Gradually, then suddenly” could work
Iran’s repeated attacks on commercial shipping may ultimately force the United States to take a more aggressive posture by reviving its maximum pressure campaign against the Tehran regime. Following...
Just three weeks after it was signed, the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran is on life support. Tehran’s promise to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for international...
United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on July 7 that it had launched an attack wave on targets in Iran “to impose heavy costs” in response to the Islamic Republic’s strikes...
Trend Overview Welcome back to the Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker. Once a month, we ask FDD’s experts and scholars to assess the administration’s foreign policy. They provide trendlines...
Abstract This article argues that the Trump Administration’s Memorandum of Understanding with Iran is subject to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA) but the administration has not complied...
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...
The Treasury Department’s issuance on June 22 of a license pausing Iranian petroleum sanctions appears to be inconsistent with the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), which prohibits such relief...
This article analyzes five key legal questions relating to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on June 17, 2026 by U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The new US-Iran memorandum offers Tehran sweeping concessions, but raises questions about whether Washington is relinquishing its leverage before securing meaningful restrictions
As Washington negotiates, Tehran executes. Iran’s judiciary announced on June 22 that authorities had arrested more than 3,000 people since the start of the conflict on charges of collaborating with...
The Trump administration is laying the groundwork for a major cash infusion for the Iranian regime. On June 22, the Treasury Department issued General License (GL) X, a 60-day authorization for the...