Published by the National If you hear of Iranian police forcibly bringing an end to a hijab-related rally in front of the parliament, you might imagine this was a classic case of the Islamic Republic suppressing its pro-democracy civil society. But on March 29, the Iranian police forces did this to an entirely different crowd: …
Published by the Atlantic Donald Trump loves letters. We know this from his first term, when he exchanged 27 letters with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in the course of 16 months and wrote a particularly memorable missive to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In his second term, he has already found an unlikely new pen pal: Iranian Supreme …
Published by the National If you hear of Iranian police forcibly bringing an end to a hijab-related rally in front of the parliament, you might imagine this was a classic case of the Islamic Republic suppressing its pro-democracy civil society. But on March 29, the Iranian police forces did this to an entirely different crowd: …
Published in Al Majalla إن التساؤل عما إذا كانت إيران وإدارة ترمب ستجريان حوارا هو أمر مضلل بطبيعته، لأن الحوار جارٍ بالفعل بين الطرفين، وإنْ لم يكن علنيا أو مباشرا. فقد كشف ترمب مطلع الشهر الجاري عن إرساله رسالة إلى القيادة الإيرانية، حملها إلى طهران دبلوماسي إماراتي رفيع، هو أنور قرقاش. وكانت المرة الأخيرة التي جرى فيها …
Published in Al Majalla Although Iran and the US are not directly talking to each other, indirect talks have been ongoing. Earlier this month, Trump revealed that he had sent a letter to the Iranian leadership. It was delivered to Iran by a leading Emirati diplomat, Anwar Gargash. The last time this happened was in 2019 when Japan’s then-prime …
Published in the National With a reputation for making dramatic pronouncements, Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation as Iran’s vice president for strategic affairs earlier this month – his second in seven months – didn’t raise many eyebrows. One expert even joked about it, saying: “Life is what happens between two Zarif resignations.” Many expected the veteran career diplomat …
Published by the Atlantic For President Donald Trump, last month’s spat at the White House with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was “great television.” To the rest of us, it was a horrifying realization of our worst fears: a real-time crumbling of the Euro-American alliance, which has been the bedrock of the international order since 1945. …
Published by the Atlantic Sadegh Zibakalam is in trouble again. The retired 76-year-old professor of political science was already serving an 18-month sentence for criticizing the Iranian regime. He came out on medical furlough—only for Tehran’s prosecutor to start investigating him again. Now Zibakalam, one of Iran’s best-known public intellectuals, whose combined followers on Instagram, Facebook, and X total almost 2 …
Published in the National Getting an Oscar nomination is quite rare for countries outside the US and Europe. So, it’s a testament to the power of Iranian cinema that this year two films from the country were nominated. Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig competed as one of the best five nominees for Best International …
Published in the Atlantic The Iranian regime spent decades building the Axis of Resistance, a coalition of anti-Western militias that extended Tehran’s influence deep into the Arab world. But what takes years to build can collapse seemingly overnight. Iraq is the latest country in which many leaders are attempting to move out of Iran’s orbit. …