Iran

Book Review – Mahmood Monshipouri, In the Shadow of Mistrust: (London: Hurst and Co., 2022). Bonn (Special to Informed Comment) – Sixteen months have passed since the inauguration of Joseph Biden as the 46th President of the United States. As of now, negotiations to revive the agreement signed in July 2015 between the members of […]

Bashar al-Assad

Was the Visit to Iran of Syria’s al-Assad impelled by Fear of Russian Failure in Ukraine?

Gilbert Achcar

By Gilbert Achkar | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The President of the Syrian regime, Bashar Al-Assad, paid a surprise visit to Tehran last Sunday and, adding to its surprising nature, is the fact that he had rarely dared to leave his country since the popular uprising against his regime began in 2011. […]

Christianity

Cole Interview: The Qur’an, the Crucifixion and Jews: Rebutting Iranian War Propaganda against Byzantium

Juan Cole

Ziryab Jamal interviewed me on my article: Juan Cole, “‘It was made to appear to them so’: the crucifixion, Jews and Sasanian war propaganda in the Qur’ān,” Religion 51, 3 (2021): 404-422. He kindly permitted me to put up the raw video of the interview with video here: Some of the points in the article […]

Iran

Iran: Labor Protests Surge: Unpaid Wages, Unsafe Work Conditions, Arbitrary Arrests, Prosecutions

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian workers are facing mounting economic and political challenges to realizing their labor rights, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Activists (HRA), an Iranian human rights documentation group, said today, ahead of International Workers’ Day on May 1, 2022. Over the past four years, amid a deterioration of Iran’s […]

Hungary

Can sanctions ever be just — let alone effective?

H. Patricia Hynes

( Fellowship of Conciliation/ Waging Nonviolence ) – As a result of its brutal invasion of Ukraine, Russia is now the most sanctioned country in the world, leading one former Obama administration Treasury official to describe the situation as “financial nuclear war.” Western European countries, however, depend on Russian oil and gas, so they have […]

Climate Crisis

Biden needs an Iran Deal: The US cannot Afford to Sanction both Moscow and Tehran without Risking $300 a barrel Oil

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United States cannot afford to impose severe economic sanctions and boycotts on Russia and on Iran at the same time. That way lies $300 a barrel oil, global economic retraction, and likely a Democratic Party bloodbath in the midterms as voters protest their anguish at the pump. There is […]

Iran

The story of the Iranian new year, Nowruz, and why its themes of renewal and healing matter

The Conversation

By Pardis Mahdavi, Arizona State University | – As the days grow longer and the flowers start to bloom, my 7-year-old gets excited and exclaims, “Nowruz is coming.” Nowruz – or “new day” in English – is the Iranian new year. Celebrated at the exact moment of the spring equinox, this is a secular festival […]

Iran

On Nowruz, the Persian New Year: Can the United States and Iran Turn a New Page in Their Relations?

Farhang Jahanpour

Oxford (Special to Informed Comment) – Sunday 20th March is the vernal equinox, which has been traditionally celebrated by Iranians as Now Ruz (New Day), the Iranian New Year. It is also celebrated in many countries in the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The first recorded mention of Now Ruz dates back to […]

Banking

Top 7 Ways Iran evaded US Sanctions that Putin could Follow

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The sorts of sanctions and boycotts the United States and its allies are placing on Russia resemble those applied by Washington to Iran off and on in the past decade, though so far the measures in place against Tehran are still far more severe than what has been done to […]