Research & Commentary Results

On January 27, Iranian media reported that top Iranian envoy, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who visited Damascus this week, also met the Iranian supreme leader’s special representative to Syria, Abolfazl Tabatabai Ashkezari. Ashkezari was appointed by the personal decree of Khamenei in March 2016. He has been living in Syria since.

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.

The deputy head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah organization, Naim Qassem, has again come out to remind a skeptical Lebanese population about reasons why the militant group has intervened in the Syrian conflict. According to Qassem, Hezbollah’s approach is “non-interference in the affairs of other countries” but

On January 27, an influential hardline Iranian cleric called on the country’s repressive

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s reiteration while visiting the United States that Iran’s “malign influence” in the Middle East has to be countered has generated swift angry reaction in Tehran.

Iranian-state media have been defending Iraj Masjedi, Tehran’s new ambassador to Baghdad. Masjedi is a member of the Qods Force, the external branch of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. Al-Alam, the Iranian-sponsored media outlet that is aimed at the Arabic-speaking world, quoted Iraq’s National Security Advisor, Falih al-Fayyad, to say that Masjedi is welcome in Baghdad and that “he is someone [Iraqis] know and appreciate for his past record in Iraq.”

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.

Following the Houthi takeover of Sana’a, Iran expanded its academic and cultural exchange programs in Yemen’s education sector. Iran initiated these programs in response to a Saudi-financed program to increase the number of Salafi mosques and madrassas in northern Yemen in the 1990s.

The January 26 meeting between the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Hossein Amir Abdollahian is another important sign that Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has at best very little influence over Iran’s Syria’s policy. The official title of Amir Abdollahian is “Director General of International Affairs” at the Iranian parliament, the Majlis. However, this generic title given to Abdullahian is in no way a true reflection of his power in Tehran and the critical base of support he enjoys.

In the last few days, a new wave of denunciations of the so-called “British Shiite” Islam has appeared in Iranian media.

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.

News that President Donald Trump is about to introduce a visa ban on Iranian nationals wanting to travel to the United States has been met by considerable composure in Tehran.

BBC Persian, an important independent source of news for Iranians inside Iran where media freedoms are restricted, published an article on the sensitive subject of Tehran’s endgame in the Syrian war.