Shahmahmood Miakhel

Last month marked the second anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini and the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement born of her murder. The authorities’ subsequent brutal crackdown on the protesters is but one flagrant example of the government’s appalling human rights record. The regime’s disdain for international human rights norms is not the recent result of Iran’s transition from Islamic theocracy to nationalistic military-security state. Rather, it has been a feature of the regime from the beginning, as shown by (inter alia) the 1988 mass executions of Iranian prisoners.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Islamist political system in Tehran is on the brink of experiencing perilous blowback for the foreign policy choices it has made. Whether Tehran continues to prioritize the fight against Israel or decides to look for ways to deprioritize the conflict as a national security matter will not be settled in the foreseeable future — or perhaps the matter will be taken out of Iran’s hands.

A leader in renewable energy in the Middle East and North Africa, Morocco is developing a dynamic green energy ecosystem that is beginning to incorporate renewable power into major sectors of its economy. Moving forward, renewable energy and the green energy ecosystem hold significant potential to drive the creation of employment opportunities for its growing population. Indeed, the expansion of green industrial manufacturing and agricultural production in Morocco could become the engine of sustainable human development more broadly. This case study explores current and planned efforts to expand the kingdom’s renewable energy sector and green energy ecosystem, assessing the opportunities and challenges in using these new green industries as a driver of long-term employment, particularly among women, youth, and rural populations.

At last month’s Summit of the Future, the more than 190 UN member countries agreed to unprecedented new commitments on behalf of future generations, and they pledged to build a long-term future perspective into their mechanisms of governance, domestically and multilaterally. MEI’s Strategic Foresight Initiative program director Steven Kenney reflects on attending the summit and its outcomes.

خلال الشهر الماضي، عانت إيران وشبكة حلفائها ووكلائها الإقليميين – محور المقاومة – من سلسلة من الخسائر والهزائم الدراماتيكية. ما هو مستقبل المحور وأعضائه، وما الذي يمكن أن تفعله الولايات المتحدة وحلفاؤها لمواجهة وتعطيل هذه الشبكة التي تقودها إيران؟

اقرأ تقرير MEI الأسبوعي الذي يتضمن تحليلات الخبراء للتطورات الإقليمية الرئيسية للأسبوع المقبل.

If war is the continuation of politics by other means and every conflict is a symptom of a deeper unresolved contradiction, the violence of the past year – as well as the current direct confrontation between Israel and Iran – are the result of two deep and unresolved political problems.

These are the denial of Palestinians’ basic rights amid long-term Israeli occupation and Iran’s rejection of the basic rules of international law, as well as its insistence on maintaining a string of militias in broken Arab states from Lebanon to Yemen.

Israel has confirmed the death of Yahya Sinwar, chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau and Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar was one of the chief architects behind Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and has been a key Israeli target throughout the Gaza war.

Arash Ghafouri and Alex Vatanka break down key takeaways from a new survey conducted by Stasis Consulting among Iranians living in Iran on Tehran’s foreign policy, regional influence, and diplomatic relations.

The results of the latest public opinion survey from Stasis Consulting provide key insights into how Iranians view Tehran’s foreign policy, regional influence, and diplomatic relations at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East, including how they perceive the economic costs of Iran’s current approach and its support for its regional proxy groups.

Iraq’s Kurdistan Region will hold elections for its devolved parliament for the first time since 2018, on Oct. 20. The polls are more than two years late and come at a time of major economic and political challenges for the semi-autonomous zone.