New Articles
Revolutionary Guards Soar in Parliament
Mehrzad Boroujerdi and Kourosh Rahimkhani This is the sixth in a series on parliamentary elections due in March 2012: The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was established to protect domestic security, but the elite military…
Intelligence on Iran: Reliable?
The following report about intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program was published on Sept. 15 by the Atlantic Council. The link to the full report is at the bottom: For a country that has been accumulating nuclear know-how since the…
Clerics Plummet in Parliament
Interview with Yasmin Alem Yasmin Alem is an international development specialist. She is the author of Duality by Design: The Iranian Electoral System published by the International Foundation of Electoral Systems. This is the…
Iran's Conservatives: The Headstrong New Bloc
Shaul Bakhash This is the fourth in a series on parliamentary elections due in March 2012: In preparation for the 2012 parliamentary election, Iran's diverse conservative parties are already forging a strategy to marginalize or…
Iran’s Growing State of Civil Disobedience
Alireza Nader The Iranian regime faces a threat even more daunting than the 2009 Green Movement protests: a disparate yet potentially powerful civil disobedience movement motivated not just by politics, but by environmental, economic, and social issues. From…
Factoids on Parliamentary Election
Semira N. Nikou This is the third in a series on parliamentary elections due in March 2012: Iran’s first parliament was formed after the Constitutional Revolution in 1906. Its current parliament was created by a new constitution written…
History of Iran’s Parliaments
This is the second in a series on parliamentary elections due in March 2012: First parliament (1980-1984) Speaker: Yadollah Sahabi (for one month in mid-1980); Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1980 to 1984) Political trends: The first parliament was the most…
Iran’s Pivotal Election
The Iran Primer today begins a series on parliamentary elections now scheduled for March 2012. The following is an excerpt from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) report on the Iranian electoral system—its origins, framework, and elected bodies…
New IAEA Report on Iran
A new International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran was released on Sept. 2, 2011. Its summary points include: While the Agency continues to conduct verification activities under Iran’s Safeguards Agreement, Iran is not implementing a…
Iraq Adopts Iran's Backing of Assad
Juan ColeWhat impact will the call by the United States and major European powers for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down--followed by heightened U.S. and EU sanctions--have on Syria-Iran relations?They will push Syria even more into the arms of Iran. Syria is being gradually cut off from…
U.S. Terrorism Report: State Sponsors
The State Department’s recently released Country Reports on Terrorism cites Iran as the most active state sponsor of terrorism. An excerpt: Overview: Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, Iran…
U.S. Terrorism Report: MEK and Jundallah
The State Department’s recently released Country Reports on Terrorism cites the Mujahadin-E Khalq and Jundallah as two groups that have carried out terrorist operations against the Iranian regime. Excerpts on the two groups: The Mujahadin-E Khalq…
U.S. Terrorism Report: Iran and Hizballah, Hamas
The State Department’s recently released 2010 Country Reports on Terrorism says Iran continues to provide aid to Hizballah (or Hezbollah) and Hamas. Excerpts on the two groups: Hizballah Description: Hizballah was designated as a…
U.S. Terrorism Report: Iran in Iraq
The State Department’s recently released Country Reports on Terrorism list says Iran is supporting Shiite militias inside Iraq. An excerpt outlining Iran’s influence in Iraq: Overview: Sunni leaders in Iraq have overwhelmingly…
The Coming Turkish-Iranian Competition in Iraq
The following excerpt is from a report published by the U.S. Institute of Peace written by Sean Kane, a program officer working with USIP’s Iraq Program: The center of attention in the Middle East has over the past decade swung from Egypt and…
Obama on Syria—And Iran
On August 18, 2011, President Barack Obama strongly condemned the Syrian government’s crackdown on protestors and called for heightened sanctions against the country. Obama singled out Iran as the only country that Syria can now turn to. Here is the…
Hossein Mousavian: Iran is Ready to Negotiate--If
Interview with Seyed Hossein Mousavian By Semira N. Nikou Seyed Hossein Mousavian was foreign policy adviser to former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani (2005-07), former spokesperson of Iran’s nuclear negotiation team (2003-05), former head of the Foreign Relations…
Prospects for U.S.-Iran Diplomacy
Geoffrey KempWhat are the prospects for progress this year in diplomatic efforts?There is little chance for a major breakthrough in negotiations with Iran in 2011, or for that matter 2012. Three major obstacles will prevent this. First, the political crisis in Iran itself, which…
90 Senators: Sanction Iran's Central Bank
Dear Mr. President: Following the latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's nuclear program and recent Iranian missile tests, we remain seriously concerned that Iran continues to accelerate its uranium enrichment and ballistic missile…
Iran’s Ties to the Taliban
Mohsen Milani
What is the status of Iran's relations with the Taliban today? Have there been significant changes since 2001?
The Islamic Republic of Iran has no official relations with the Taliban. Nor do the Taliban have an office or a representative in Tehran, as do many non-state…
Part II: Iran’s Controversial Textbooks
Interview with Shervin Malekzadeh Shervin Malekzadeh recently received his Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University. His dissertation, based on nearly two years of research in Iran, deals with the politics of education in Iran and the ways in which efforts to produce…
Part I: Iran's Education Overhaul
Interview with Shervin Malekzadeh Shervin Malekzadeh recently received his Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University. His dissertation, based on nearly two years of research in Iran, deals with the politics of education in Iran and the ways in which…
Analysis of Iran-al Qaeda “Secret Deal”
Patrick Clawson The Treasury department sanctioned a prominent Iran-based al Qaeda facilitator and five other members of his network. How important is this new development? The Treasury Department is effectively accusing Iran of being an important link in al Qaeda’s financing and…
U.S. Charges Iran has “Secret Deal” with al Qaeda
The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the designation of six members of an al-Qa’ida network headed by Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, a prominent Iran-based al-Qa’ida facilitator, operating under an agreement between al-Qa’ida and the Iranian government…
Arab Attitudes Toward Iran, 2011
2011 poll conducted by the Arab American Institute found that Iran’s popularity among the five Arab countries surveyed—Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—has declined in recent years. The United States ranked the lowest among the…
Russia’s New Diplomatic Idea for Iran
Mark N. Katz During a visit to the United States in mid-July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov presented the Obama administration with a plan for "step by step" nuclear talks with Iran. What is new about the Russian initiative? Foreign Minister SergeiLavrov’s “step by step” approach…
U.S. and Iranian Strategic Competition
The CSIS Burke Chair compiled a series of chronological reports with the assistance of Adam Seitz of the Marine Corps University on Iranian perceptions of national security and competition with the United States. The following is an excerpt with a link to the…
List of Executions in the Islamic Republic
The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center recently released a report charting executions by the Islamic Republic of Iran since December 2010. The report is based on information from official and semi-official sources as well as other reports; links…
Subsidies: New IMF Report
The International Monetary Fund released a report today on Iran’s subsidy reform. The final section addresses the challenges ahead. A link to the full report is at the bottom: The successful implementation of…
Iran’s Nuclear Moves Point to Increased Tensions
David Albright and Andrea Stricker The conflict over Iran’s nuclear program appears to be getting worse. In June, Iran decided to relocate 20 percent enrichment at its fortified Fordow enrichment plant near Qom and install advanced centrifuges that would triple…