Iran

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said this week that the United States used to justify its military presence in Syria on the grounds that it was fighting terrorism. He said that Donald Trump has let the cat out of the bag and admitted that the real reason is to steal Syrian […]

Iran

How Saudi-Iranian oil rivalry has been shaped by American power

The Conversation

By Sukru Cildir | – The relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran, both oil-rich states in the Middle East, has oscillated from co-operation to conflict throughout history. Alongside a range of factors that shape their rivalry including sectarianism and nationalism has been the politics of oil. Oil is a strategic international commodity, and its use […]

Donald Trump

How the Trump Administration has Made Iranian Nuclear Enrichment only Rational

Akan Malici

By Akan Malici (Informed Comment) – It would be rational for Iran to pursue a nuclear bomb. Ironically, the U.S. has long been compelling it in this direction. The U.S. also bears the blame for the newest escalation, as it does for the enemy relationship generally. U.S. leaders will be quick to discard these statements […]

Iran

Iraq Protests Heat Up Long-Standing Rivalry Between Iraqi And Iranian Shiite Religious Leaders

Niqash

By Elias Thomas | – ( Niqash.org) – Behind the scenes of Iraq’s demonstrations, a decades-old rivalry between two centres of religious learning and authority, one local and the other in Iran, is playing out. 3.11.2019 Politics Protests in Baghdad. In early October, snipers shot at unarmed protesters on the streets of Iraq, who were […]

Hizbullah

The Iraqi and Lebanese Popular uprisings Caught between Iranian and Israeli Geopolitics

Middle East Monitor

By Oraib Al-Rantawi | @OraibAlRantawi It is not only Iran that is paying close attention to the uprisings of the Iraqi and Lebanese people; Israel is also monitoring the situation closely, especially in Lebanon. It has also been involved in the Iraqi crisis recently and dealing direct blows to the Popular Mobilisation Forces and the […]

Iran

Forty Years Later, US and Iran still Haunted by Embassy Hostage Crisis

Farhang Jahanpour

(Informed Comment) – The 4th November 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the Iran Hostage Crisis that has dominated and poisoned Iran-US relations ever since. The event refers to the seizure of a number of US diplomats and other employees in the United States Embassy in Tehran by the so-called “Muslim Students Following the Imam’s […]

Donald Trump

How Trump’s Maximum Sanctions Endanger the Health of Iran’s Children, Civilians

Human Rights Watch

US Should Ensure Effective Humanitarian Exemptions

Donald Trump

Iran seeks to Take advantage of Trump’s Exit from Syria to become Diplomatic Power Broker

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – How has Trump’s impetuous invitation to Turkey to invade Syria and displace America’s allies against ISIL, the Syrian Kurds, issued nearly two weeks ago, been taken advantage of by Iran? It should be noted in the first instance that Iran has its own restive Kurdish province and is no more […]

Iran

Lots of Countries have Enriched Uranium – How Iran’s Program Fell on the Wrong Side of History

The Conversation

By Joseph O’Mahoney | – As tensions remain at fever pitch between Tehran and Washington, Iran continues to breach limits agreed in the 2015 Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Since Donald Trump withdrew the US from the deal in May 2018, its future has become more and more uncertain. […]