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. …
Published in the National The list of grievances Iranians hold against their security forces is so long that it’s hard to predict which ones could lead to protests at any given moment. A recent impetus was a brutal murder that doesn’t seem to be political at the first glance but, like many things in Iran, …
Published in Majalla US President Donald Trump has long had a consistent position on Iran: He doesn’t want to change the country’s rulers, but he does want to change their behaviour, chiefly to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon. In order to get there, he is intent on bringing back his first-term policy of maximum pressure, …
Published by the National The acronym FATF probably doesn’t mean much to most people around the world. It refers to the Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based intergovernmental organisation seeking to tackle money-laundering and financing of terrorism. But this relatively obscure body is almost a household name in Iran given its central role in political debates …
Published in Universal Cinema Long before I watched My Favorite Cake, I was struck by the power of some of the scenes shown in its trailer. I wasn’t alone and this wonder was shared by thousands of Iranians who watched the viral trailer. In a particularly memorable scene, Mahin (Leyli Farhadpour) pours a glass of wine for …