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.
Diplomatic relations between Iran and the United Arab Emirates are going through another rough patch as the latter recently submitted a letter to the United Nations General Assembly, expressing concern over Iran’s “expansionist” policies in the region.
The Iranian media reports that Iran and China signed an agreement on November 14 to bolster defense-military cooperation and fight terrorism.
As President Hassan Rouhani is readying for reelection next May, he has come under growing pressure from his reformist supporters to improve the human rights situation in the country.
Iranian officials and media have reacted to Donald Trump’s election victory with a mixture of cautious optimism and alarm.
During the final stages of US presidential election, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and leaders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) had implicitly supported Trump over Hillary Clinton. With Trump’s victory, they now hope that his pro-Moscow and anti-Saudi Arabia rhetoric translates into policy to favor Iran’s interests in Syria and the broader region.
On November 10, a number of US news outlets reported that President-elect Donald Trump was considering his top campaign surrogates for top cabinet positions.
In this special edition of our weekly briefing, MEI experts Paul Salem, Robert S. Ford, Eran Etzion, Gonul Tol, Alex Vatanka, and Gerald Feierstein provide analysis on the impact of Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. Presidential Election on the future of Middle East policy, its particular effect on the crises in Iraq and Syria, and how the news has been received across the region, including in Turkey, Iran, and the GCC.
Read the full article on The National Interest.
The last few weeks has seen a flurry of important announcements in Iranian-Indian relations. It is usually the commercial transactions that capture most of the headlines, but the potential for closer ties between these two states runs much deeper.
As the Iraqi security forces are fighting the Islamic State to retake Mosul, a top Iranian general and his aides are reportedly playing a key role on the battlefield.
As the Iraqi security forces are moving deeper into eastern districts of Mosul, the Iranian media reports that militia groups from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) are making territorial gains against the Islamic State in Mosul’s western region.
Tens of thousands of Iranians marched across Iran to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran following the Islamic Revolution in the country in 1979.
Iranian legislators on November 1 approved President Hassan Rouhani’s three cabinet picks.
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.
