Vatanka Reports
News and Analysis on the Greater Middle East 
 

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

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

What the Hijab Protests Mean for Iran’s Clerical Class

Ali Khamenei won’t give up power for anyone—not even his president.

During his most recent visit to Tehran, on July 19, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, vowed closer economic cooperation.

The Iranian authorities anticipate that President Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East is aimed at one top priority: to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to its partners in the region.

After a three-month-long suspension of the nuclear talks in Vienna, the U.S. and Iran appear set to resume diplomatic negotiations on June 28 in Doha, Qatar.

Since late September 2021, when Iran-Azerbaijan relations hit a low point, Tehran and Baku have engaged in a process of de-escalation.

In an interview, Alex Vatanka discusses his book on how the Khamenei-Rafsanjani relationship shaped post-revolution Iran

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a watershed moment on so many levels for so many countries.

As both a candidate and as president, Ebrahim Raisi has repeated a basic mantra: that he will seek to quickly improve relations with Iran’s neighbors, and particularly the Arab Gulf states. In terms of his motivations for this push, two points are undeniably important.