Iran

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Zack Beauchamp at Vox has a very clear explanation of why the $400 million the US paid to Iran in January was not a ransom for hostages. The fact is that the Obama administration dodged a likely ruling by an arbitration court against the United States […]

Featured

Arab Street Shocked as Saudi Delegation Visits Israel

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Egyptian news site the Arab Observer Network reports that the visit to Israel of a former Saudi military intelligence officer, Gen. Anwar Eshki, came as a body blow to the Arab in the street. He conducted several meetings with Israeli officials last week, along with […]

Iran

Iranian Fighters in Syria Hailed as Martyrs, Shrine-Defenders by Hard Liners

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | (RFE/RL) | – – In late May, Iranian state and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officials turned out in force at a state funeral in Ardebil Province. Revolutionary Guard Hashem Dehghani-nia's was among the latest coffins to have returned from the battlegrounds of Syria, where a rising Iranian death toll testifies […]

Iran

Is Iran winning their Mideast Cold War with Saudi Arabia?

contributors

By Robert Harvey | (Project Syndicate) | – – LONDON – A cold war is taking place in a very hot place. A key component of the sectarian competition between Shia and Sunni Islam in the Middle East is geopolitical, with Iran facing off against Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies in a struggle for […]

Culture

Goodbye to Abbas Kiarostami, a Filmmaking Legend Whose Vision ‘Transversed His Persian Roots’

contributors

By Mahsa Alimardani | ( Global Voices) | – – News trickled out of a Paris hospital on the evening of 4 July that Iranian cinematic auteur Abbas Kiarostami lost his battle against cancer at the age of 76. Kiarostami had been admitted to Tehran's Arad Hospital in mid-June, where he had undergone an operation […]

Iran

Now Iran-Kurdish Tensions are Spiking; Why?

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) | – – Clashes erupted this month between Kurdish fighters and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), with each side claiming to have inflicted casualties on the other. The country’s heavily censored media have even reported the fighting and acknowledged fatalities on the government side. But why the sudden […]

Iran

How can Americans prevent an Israeli-Iranian War? Dump the Squatter Settlers

contributors

By Thomas Buonomo | (Informed Comment) | – – The conflict in Syria is likely to grow more dangerous for all parties in the near future as Assad refuses to step down and Iran continues to expand its military presence in Syria and Lebanon in pursuit of its decades-long goal of annihilating the state of […]

Featured

Modern Mongols: Sunni Arabs outraged at Iran role in Iraqi Gov’t Fallujah Campaign

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – BBC Monitoring surveyed the Arabic press on 27 May for the issue of the Iranian role in the Iraq government campaign to take Fallujah from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). Although Saudi and other newspapers say they want to see Daesh defeated, they are deeply critical of the […]