Research & Commentary Results

Since antigovernment protests began in the Iranian city of Mashhad last week and soon spread across the country, Islamic Republic authorities have intensified Internet crackdown in an effort to block the Iranian people from access to information and means of communication. The primary target has been Telegram, the most popular messaging app used by about half of Iran’s 80 million population. Over the weekend, the Iranian government “temporarily” blocked Telegram and Instagram, another popular social media platform.

Read the full article (PDF) published by Middle East Studies at Marine Corps University.

Read the full article on War on the Rocks.

View the full issue brief at the Atlantic Council.

The Middle East Institute will be screening Ziad Doueiri’s The Insult at Georgetown University in Washington, DC on January 12. Get your tickets here!

Iranian authorities have arrested a European national in the western province of Lorestan on charges of “organizing” antigovernment protests in the city of Borujerd, the Iranian media quoted local officials as saying.

Four Iranian Kurdish political parties and militant groups have voiced support for antigovernment protests that have engulfed the Islamic Republic over the past week. The groups urged the international community to back the Iranian people’s “legitimate demands.”

The head of a prominent Iranian-backed Iraqi militia group has called for the exit of American troops from Iraq, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported today. “We have repeatedly heard American government officials saying that Washington wants to remain in Iraq after ISIS for the long haul. This is not something that we want to allow to happen and is totally acceptable to us,” Qais al-Khazali, the secretary-general of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, said during a speech in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

In a telephone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron earlier today, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani defended the country’s military involvement in regional conflicts and emphasized that Tehran will continue its controversial ballistic missile program despite increasing pressure from Washington and its allies, according to the account of the conversation provided by the Iranian media.

An article in Fars News Agency says Russia has reached out to all key internal and external stakeholders in the Syrian conflict to shape up the future of the country, but it cannot ignore Iran’s role and interest in Syria. “Although Russia has supported the Bashar al-Assad government through its air force, it has been Iran and the resistance axis that has carried out most of the fighting on the battlefield.

A senior Iranian military official has said that the Houthi rebels in Yemen are inspired by Iran’s Islamic Revolution and its founder’s thoughts and are fighting against the Saudi-led coalition under the instructions of Ira

India’s burgeoning economic relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been accompanied by heightened security risks, including in the domain of terrorism. In light of these developments, this article addresses three questions: What is the nature and gravity of the transnational terrorist linkages that exist between India and Gulf Arab countries? What steps has India taken, in concert with its Gulf Arab partners, to counter the terrorist threat? And what more could be done to strengthen India-Gulf Arab counterterrorism (CT) cooperation?

The eight round of Syria peace talks sponsored by Russia, Iran and Turkey began today in the Kazakh capital of Astana, the Iranian media reported.

A top aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said there will be a third intifada and called on all Muslim countries to support Palestinian armed factions to fight Israel.

Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on military affairs, has expressed the concern that Iran’s interests in Iraq could be imperiled if the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections change the balance of power in