Iran

ByAli Bilgic, Loughborough University (The Conversation) – The announcement of planned talks between the US and Iran in Oman signifies a crucial development – especially given the history of distrust and animosity that has characterised their interactions. There remains a degree of confusion as to whether the negotiations over Iran’s development of a nuclear capacity […]

censorship

Iran must Unconditionally Release Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi

Human Rights Watch

Release All other Arbitrarily Detained Rights Activists Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities are threatening to return the human rights defender and Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi to prison to serve the remainder of her unjust sentence as a means to pressure her to cease her rights advocacy, Human Rights Watch said today. […]

Donald Trump

With US Bombers at the ready, can Trump cut a Deal with Iran and avoid a War?

The Conversation

By Amin Saikal, Victoria University (The Conversation) – The United States and Iran are once again on a collision course over the Iranian nuclear program. In a letter dated early March, US President Donald Trump urged Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to negotiate a new deal. The new deal would replace the defunct nuclear […]

Featured

Iran Rejects direct talks with Trump despite threat that “There will be Bombing.”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met with his cabinet on Sunday, according to the president’s website, and announced that Trump’s offer of direct negotiations had been rejected. Iran replied through Oman, which has often served as a conduit for communication between Washington and Tehran. Trump had announced that he wrote to […]

Iran

With Proxies Weakened, Iran bets on Missiles for Defense

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Kian Sharifi ( RFE/ RL) – Iran says it has numerous underground missile bases across Iran, and sporadically unveils some with a lot of hype. The newly unveiled base — dubbed “a missile metropolis” by some outlets — is a massive facility filled with high-powered weaponry, but experts say no new hardware could be […]

China

Can Trump’s Plan to Target China for its Oil Imports from Iran Succeed?

Neil Thompson

London (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Since returning to office in January, US President Donald Trump has reinstated the maximum pressure campaign of his first administration on Iran. Trump wants to push Iran into ending its nuclear programme, and the White House has tried to severely curtail Iran’s oil exports as way of putting […]

Donald Trump

Saudi Arabia, Rehabilitated, is Mediator in Ukraine War, and maybe with Iran

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University (The Conversation) – Saudi Arabia is 2,000 miles from Ukraine and even more politically distant, so at first glance it might seem like it has nothing to do with the ongoing war there. But the Gulf state has emerged as a key intermediary in the most serious ceasefire negotiations […]

Eurasia

Can the Caspian Sea be Saved from turning into an environmental Disaster?

Global Voices

Written byNurbek Bekmurzaev ( Global Voices ) – The Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed body of water in the world, faces a grim future in the form of significant desiccation, loss of flora and fauna, and large-scale pollution. All these processes have already started and their further deterioration poses immense risks for the economies and […]

Featured

On Int’l Women’s Day: In Memory of Iranian Women who have Struggled for Freedom

Fariba Amini

Newark, Delaware (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When Ruhollah Khomeini was still in Neauphle-le-Château, in various declarations and interviews, he had promised that women would have the freedom to choose their attire. That they would have the same rights as men. “In an interview with a left-leaning Lebanese newspaper, he said that Islam believes in the total […]