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A last chance for reforms squandered: Iranian regime doubles down after 2022 protests

September 14, 2023

History might very well show that the people’s protests that broke out in September 2022 in Iran were the final opportunity for the Islamist regime to change political course. But as the past year has made clear, the regime in Tehran utterly failed to seize the moment.

The Middle East Might Be Moving Toward Stability

June 26, 2023

Heightened great power competition is allowing nations to make deals in their own best interests.

Iran and the GCC connectivity agenda: Implication for Washington’s Iran policy

June 21, 2023

Iran is possibly the only country that the United Arab Emirates can call an “enemy.” Yet there is another more significant and multilayered side to the UAE-Iran relationship, one that concepts such as political pragmatism or hedging alone cannot explain.

Iran’s security chief Shamkhani did his job but had to go

June 5, 2023

Late last month, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei opted to replace the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Shamkhani.

Russia and Iran Have High Hopes for Each Other

May 2, 2023

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoys keeps visiting Iran. Igor Levitin, Putin’s advisor, has visited Tehran twice in 2023, totaling five visits in the last six months.

Can the West stop Russian-Iranian convergence?

April 3, 2023

More than a year on from the beginning of the Ukraine war in February 2022, there is no more business as usual for Russia-Iran relations. While bilateral ties are still characterized by an intense focus on security and defense, the two sides are opening multiple new areas of cooperation as well.

Special Briefing: The legacy, lessons, and future course of Iraq 20 years since the U.S. invasion

March 20, 2023

The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq presented policymakers in Tehran with the need to make a crucial decision.

Iran’s Regime Plays with Fire in Baluchistan

January 30, 2023

Stirring sectarian tensions in the country’s poorest province is a dangerous game.

Rising Iran-Azerbaijan rivalry signals a changing Caucasus

January 29, 2023

The region is fast becoming a new geopolitical tinderbox, but both countries have good reasons to rebuild ties

America and Iran’s Tough Tango with the Gulf States

December 2, 2022

Since the Biden Administration came to office, Washington has been full of reports that the United States and its Gulf allies are drifting apart.

Tehran lashes out at Israelis’ support for Iranian protest movement

November 2, 2022

These demonstrations represent perhaps the most sustained domestic challenge to the clerical leadership since 1979, despite efforts by authorities to quell the unrest through mass arrests, beatings and killings, and internet and social media cuts.

Albania finds itself caught in the middle as Iran and the West square off

October 26, 2022

Albania, a small Muslim-majority country in Southeastern Europe, has unexpectedly emerged as a stalwart foe of the Islamic Republic.

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