Vatanka Reports
News and Analysis on the Greater Middle East 
 

By all accounts, it's been a tough year for Iran.

Iranian military forces began a large-scale and ongoing offensive in the northwestern part of the country in early July.

The Islamic Republic of Iran holds a strategic position in the middle of the Arab world in light of the popular uprisings occurring throughout the region.

At a time of unprecedented popular unrest in key Arab states of the Middle East, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated in a February 21, 2011 speech that two simple remedies are required to solve the problems that afflict the contemporary Islamic World.

A specter is haunting the Middle East -- the specter of democracy.

Half a century after independence and two decades since the liberation from Iraqi occupation, Kuwait’s bitter experience with pan-Arabism and ongoing regional power plays have affected its growth.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, no domestic group has embarrassed the authorities in Tehran more than Jundallah.

تا سال ۱۳۸۴ و انتخاب محمود احمدی‌نژاد -که خود را از فعالان سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی در زمان جنگ می خواند- به ریاست جمهوری، سپاه به قدرت سیاسی‌-اقتصادی مهمی تبدیل شده بود.

Brazil’s self-perceptions and aspirations as an emerging global power are a key to understanding why the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has chosen this particular moment in time to deepen ties with an Iranian regime that is facing crisis, both at home and abroad.

Given the last two weeks of violent regime crackdown on popular protesters in Iran and subsequent international reprimand, the immediate prospect for the resumption of nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the West looks bleak

As Iran continues to witnesses the largest ever popular mobilization against the Islamist regime, the news coverage by the country’s state-owned media remains emphatically against the protesters.

As the nuclear standoff with Iran runs into its sixth year, prospects for a compromise deal remains as remote as ever.