After decades of political setbacks, Iran’s former Revolutionary Guards commander has returned to the center of power. Is he an incidental beneficiary of war, or have observers underestimated him all along?
Gulf states and their partners are increasingly looking beyond their most immediate interests of containing the war with Iran. While recent talks between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran have kept de-escalation on the agenda, a broader regional security framework and non-aggression pact has also emerged, envisioning a longer-lasting solution to regional conflicts. The talks have yet to produce a settlement, but they reflect a growing recognition that Gulf security cannot depend entirely on Washington. Iran will still be there, and its neighbors will have to find ways of living with it.
Recent elections for the Israeli Knesset and American Congress may make less of a difference in the Middle East than some people think. Elections are significant indicators of national political trends, but do not always translate into changes in national security strategies. That is likely the case now in both nations.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denounced as “selective and spiteful” the U.N. Human Rights Council’s resolution to renew the mandate of a U.N. special rapporteur to investigate human rights situation in Iran, the Press TV reports.
A top aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has warned that “a number of opportunists” intend to wage a “political expedition” to empower “secular” movements in order to seize power in the country.
President Donald Trump’s Persian New Year message to the Iranian people is a plot by the U.S.
Security authorities in Iran have arrested a prominent reformist journalist, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) reports.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators today introduced a bill that would impose tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program and other non-nuclear activities, Reuters reports.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s March 22 remark that the United States and its allies will remain engaged in Syria and Iraq long after the Islamic State is defeated has provoked an angry reaction in Iran.
When I was approached last summer by New York University’s Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies to teach a class this spring, I did not imagine the changes that would take place in the American political landscape. Since Donald Trump took office, his promise to place “America first” has manifested itself in numerous ways. Although I am committed to the university and the students, traveling to the United States is becoming less and less enticing.
A new report claims that Iran has transferred aerial drone technology to Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has pledged that his government will do its utmost to implement policies that will strengthen the country’s “resistance economy” and stimulate growth. In a letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Wednesday, Rouhani emphasized that his administration planned to hold a cabinet session to discuss Supreme Leader’s latest instructions and explore ways of increasing domestic production and creating jobs – particularly for young Iranians.
U.S. Navy commanders have expressed the concern that Iranian naval forces are disrupting international navigation by “harassing” warships passing through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The U.S.
The discourse of Non-Alignment continues to shape the political culture of the Indian establishment’s strategic thinking in the field of foreign policy, notwithstanding the decline of Gandhian-Nehruvian moralism and increasing adaptation to the culture of power-centered realism in recent years. This essay shows that gradualism and risk avoidance remain deeply embedded features of India’s conduct of external relations, including its relations with West Asia.
The Yemeni civil war, which began in March 2015, has become another quagmire in the Middle East with increasingly sectarian overtones. However, sectarianism is not the only dimension to this conflict. Indeed, the war has straddled a number of cleavages in Yemeni society, including the north-south divide. The Southern Nationalist Movement, an umbrella platform known locally as Hirak, presents a major obstacle to peace as it continues to call for secession for the south.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned that his government is “completely ready” to restart its nuclear program if the United States fails to adhere to the 2015 nuclear agreement. “If America reneges on the deal to the level that the continuation of the J.C.P.O.A. [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] harms our national interests, the Islamic Republic of Iran is completely ready to return to the pre-J.C.P.O.A.
The oldest peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East, MEI’s flagship journal covers politics, society, and culture in the region.
