Iran

Barcelona (Special to Informed Comment) – Review of Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, and John Tirman, Republics of Myth: National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2022.) The enmity between the United States and Iran following the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution constitutes one of the most studied international rivalries. This notwithstanding, the recently […]

Featured

Iran Security Fires on Crowd Protesting Death in Custody of Kurdish Woman for “Bad Veiling”, Wounds 13

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, 13 protesters were wounded when security forces opened fire on them outside the house of the governor in Saghez, Iranian Kurdistan. This, according to the Hengaw human rights organization. The demonstrators were expressing their fury over the death in police custody of Mahsa “Zhina” Amini, 22, a Kurdish […]

infrastructure

After oil: what Malaysia and Iran may look like in a post-Fossil Fuel Future

The Conversation

By Rowena Abdul Razak, London School of Economics and Political Science and Asma Mehan, Texas Tech University | – As the devastation of climate change makes the need to decarbonise clearer by the day, countries face the question of what to do with their old fossil fuel infrastructure. While some environmental activists have taken to […]

Featured

Iran, seeking Counter to US Sanctions, is Joining Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Warming up to Russia

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran’s foreign minister, attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, has signed key membership papers to formalize its entry into the Eurasian security body led by China and Russia. Although Iran is now considered by the US State Department to be in what it calls the “Middle […]

Eurasia

Those Iranian Planes Ferrying Drones to Moscow Flew over Georgia: But who gave Permission?

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Nadia Beard | – ( RFE/ RL) – TBILISI — Georgia’s position on the war in Ukraine has again come under domestic scrutiny after three Iran Air Cargo planes allegedly carrying drones to Russia passed through Georgian airspace. Over the last few days, Georgian opposition figures have called for answers from the government, accusing […]

Iran

Iran and the US appear unlikely to reach a new Nuclear Deal – leaving Everyone more Unsafe

The Conversation

By Nina Srinivasan Rathbun, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences | – (The Conversation) – Iran’s standoff with the United States over its potential nuclear weapons program is unlikely to ease anytime soon. The U.S. and Iran launched talks in 2021 to renew a now-defunct political deal that would curb Iran’s nuclear program. […]

Authoritarianism

Rumors Swirl Around Iranian Supreme Leader’s Successor: Will it be another Khomeini?

Golnaz Esfandiari

( RFE/ RL ) – Iran’s Rasa news agency has rekindled rumors that Mojtaba Khamenei, the influential son of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is being groomed as the successor to his elderly father, despite his lack of credentials. Affiliated with seminaries in the holy Shi’ite city of Qom, the agency used the title of […]

Iran

Did the U.S. Permanently Destabilize Iraq? Will There be an Intra-Shia Civil War?

Middle East Monitor

By Raed Ahmed | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – There is usually a lot of competition between near-equal armed groups in Iraq. Resisting the 2003 US-led invasion provided a good opportunity for emerging groups from Sunni and Shia communities across the country to do just that. Such groups became the main protagonists in […]

Iran

Israel is worried about a possible Clash with Washington over the Iran Nuclear Deal

Middle East Monitor

By Adnan Abu Amer | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – As the countdown begins for the signing of a nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, a number of disputes have surfaced between Israel and the US about the deal. There is also criticism within Israel of the government’s political and military approach […]