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Ahmad Khalid Majidyar is a Middle East & South Asia analyst with a focus on Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was previously a senior fellow and the director of IranObserved Project at the Middle East Institute.
From 2008 to 2015, Majidyar worked as a senior research associate at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he co-authored two monographs on Iran: Iranian Influence in the Levant, Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan (AEI 2012), and The Shi’ites of the Middle East: An Iranian fifth column? (AEI 2014). He also published a number of research papers on Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As an instructor with the Naval Postgraduate School’s Leadership Development and Education for Sustained Peace program (2008-2016), Majidyar provided graduate-level seminars to more than 3,000 U.S. and NATO military leaders on Afghanistan and the broader region. In addition, he has provided briefings on Iran and Afghanistan at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint IED Defeat Organization, the National Defense University, the State Department, and Congress; and he has spoken as a guest analyst at think tanks, universities, and world affairs councils.
Majidyar’s articles on Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been published in Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Fareed Zakaria’s GPS, Fox News, U.S. News & World Report, Daily Telegraph, and Forbes, among others. He has also discussed Middle Eastern topics on the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera English, Sky News, CBC Canada, Bloomberg News and Voice of America’s Dari, Farsi, Urdu and English services.
Previously, Majidyar worked as a media analyst with the BBC Monitoring in Afghanistan and as a humanitarian aid worker with the UNHCR in Pakistan.
The Iranian media has reacted angrily to the Sudanese president’s yesterday remarks that Tehran is destabilizing the Middle East and North Africa and “spreading Shiism” in Sudan and throughout the region.
On January 27, an influential hardline Iranian cleric called on the country’s repressive
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) reports that at least 15 Baha’i students were expelled from Iranian universities in the past one month.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) today called on Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to “use all the powers of his office to obtain the immediate release of Nazanin
Although Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on Tuesday to jointly monitor the fragile cessation of hostilities in Syria, tensions are escalating between Moscow and Tehran about how to move forward with both war and diplomatic efforts in the future. It is becoming more apparent that Russian and Iran have diverging interests and goals – both in the immediate and long terms – in Syria, although they have cooperated closely over the past years to prop up the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad.
On January 26, Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused Iran of spreading its ideological and military influence throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah has arrived in Tehran today to deliver a message from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on a strategic dialogue between the Gulf Arab states and Iran, the Iranian and Arab media report. “Gulf states have a true desire that relations with Iran are normal and based on international law,” Sabah said on Tuesday after attending the inauguration of a NATO center in Kuwait.
The Trump administration’s plan to develop a missile defense system (MDS) to counter potential intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) threats has raised many questions in Iran.
Shortly after Donald Trump took the oath of office, the White House website released a policy statement – titled “Making Our Military Strong Again” – which stated that the administration will “develop a state-of-the-art missile defense system to protect against missile-based attacks from states like Iran and North Korea.”
A senior aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has urged the Basij paramilitary forces to expand its presence and activities in mo
A new opinion poll shows that public support for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is plummeting as Iranians are increasingly dissatisfied with the government’s handling of economic and democracy-related issues.
Ukrainian officials have confirmed that a shipment of missile components sized at a Kieve airport was destined for Iran. According to a report by IHS Jane’s, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (DPSU) said its personnel found 17 boxes with no accompanying documents that contained components for a Fagot anti-tank guided missile system. The DPSU also released photos of components from 9P135-series ground launching systems found on the Iran-bound airliner.
Iran, Russia and Turkey agreed earlier today to establish a trilateral mechanism to enforce the fragile cessation of hostilities in Syria. After a two-day meeting in Kazakhstan sponsored by Moscow, the trio issued a joint statement that called for “a political process based on the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 2254” to end the Syrian civil war.
A senior Iraqi official has said that the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) will take part in the “liberation” of western Mosul. “The popular mobilization forces in Nineveh Province will participate in the liberation operation of Tal Afar,” Iraqi National Security Advisor Falih al-Fayyad said in an interview with Iranian state-run Al-Alam News Network published on January 23.
Earlier today, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to jointly monitor the fragile cessation of hostilities in Syria and pledged to work for a political solution to end the Syrian civil war. But while Moscow and Ankara are trying to broaden the scope of future discussions on Syria, Tehran continues to oppose the inclusion of the United States and regional Sunni states in the process.
Afghan officials say Iran has recently sent a delegation to meet with Taliban commanders in the restive province of Helmand. On January 23, Hayatullah Hayat, the governor of Helmand, told Afghanistan’s 1TV channel that the National Directorate of Security was probing allegations that the Iranian team also delivered weapons to the Taliban militants in Helmand’s Garmsir District.
