Iran

By Moritz Pieper | (The Conversation) | – – The cake is quite big, but everyone wants a slice. Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, visited Iran last month accompanied by business leaders from the energy, transportation and defence sectors. It was a return visit after the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, had made Italy his first […]

Featured

Top 4 Reasons Iran will stand by Syrian gov’t despite High Casualties

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Saturday, Iran announced that 13 members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps had been killed and 21 wounded when the al-Qaeda-led Army of Islam fundamentalist Sunni coalition took the village of Khan Touman near Aleppo. Iran will nevertheless continue to back the regime of Bashar al-Assad […]

Democracy

With more Women than Clerics, will Iran’s new Parliament improve Women’s Rights?

contributors

Leila Alikarami | (Open Democracy) | – – The problem was the Guardian Council, a body which has veto authority over any legislature, which in this case rejected all 33 bills introduced by women deputies. Parvaneh Salahshouri in the conference of elected moderates and reformists of Iran, March 2016. Wikicommons/ Hamed Malekpour. Some rights reserved.Seventeen […]

Iran

Iran after Nuclear Deal: Renewed Isolation or a pay-off for Pres. Rouhani?

contributors

By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | – – President Hasan Rouhani’s honeymoon period is over. He faces mounting opposition in Iran, and very difficult questions abroad. How can he respond to these challenges? The gloss of the November 2015 nuclear deal that removed some international sanctions on Iran is losing its shine. President Hasan […]

Democracy

Why Are there no Iranian Suicide Bombers? Evolving Islamic Democracy Matters!

contributors

By Ali R. Abootalebi | (Informed Comment) | – – The emergence of political Islam in the mainstream politics in the Middle East and across other Muslim countries since the 1970s has impacted socioeconomic and political development in so many different ways. The return of religion–a symbol of traditionalism–to the mainstream debate about and the […]

Iran

Iranians Celebrate first Now Ruz (New Year’s) Since lifting of Int’l Sanctions

contributors

CCTV | (Video News Report) | – – “March 20 marks the Persian New Year, Nowruz, which translates as “New Day.” Millions of people across the Middle East and Central Asia are celebrating the holiday.” CCTV News: “Iranians mark New Year with Nowruz celebrations”

Iran

Is Iran Pres. Rouhani trying to Rehabilitate Khatami & the Reformers?

contributors

By Frud Bezhan | ( RFE/RL ) | – – Iran’s president has broken a long-standing taboo by publicly defending a reformist predecessor, but his remarks were met with a muted response. In a speech broadcast live from Mohammad Khatami’s hometown on March 7, President Hassan Rohani hailed the former reformist president as a “dear […]

Displaced and Refugees

As EU pays Turkey billions to stop migrants, Anger over ‘unconscionable’ border closures

contributors

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org ) | – – As EU and Turkey barter over migrant lives, campaigners decry pay-outs and border closures as ‘unconscionable’ Leaders from the European Union and Turkey on Monday held negotiations over what to do with the unprecedented wave of migrants fleeing war and violence in the […]

Democracy

Nine Takeaways From Iran’s Elections

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) | – – Iran's moderates and reformists have had nearly a week to celebrate their return from a decade of political marginalization in elections that recast the ranks of the parliament and the clerically dominated Assembly of Experts, which selects and oversees the supreme leader. But how much has […]