Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu may not be capable of understanding that the leaks about attacking Iran were intended to keep Israel safe rather than get back at him.
Israelis Beginning to Understand the Consequences of Attacking Iran
read more
Iran
What War Between Iran and Saudi Arabia Might Look Like
The outcome of a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran might depend on who gets the most third-party assistance.
Zahra’s Paradise
Set in the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent elections of 2009, Zahra’s Paradise is the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young protestor who has disappeared in the Islamic Republic’s gulags. Mehdi has vanished in an extrajudicial twilight zone where habeas corpus is suspended.
Dissecting Iran’s Economic Jihad
In the absence of genuine democratic institutions, a set of common economic grievances is galvanizing the Arab Street against a diverse host of unaccountable regimes across the Arab world. However, deep and structural economic problems also characterize much of the Middle East, including non-Arab Iran. Recognizing the depth and gravity of the country’s economic challenges, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamanei has declared 2011 as the year of “economic jihad.”
The Courtship of Iran and Pakistan
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari paid a second visit to Tehran last weekend after having been there only three weeks ago. Official reports by Pakistani and Iranian sources broadly characterized the visit as “part of the ongoing process to strengthen bilateral ties, step up consultations with countries in the region for peace and stability at a time when tension was developing in some parts and for promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan and fighting militancy.” But this rationale hardly warrants two head-of-state level official visits in such a short span of time. After all, lower-level officials could have dealt with such concerns, as in the past.
Iran Missile Tests Timed to Capitalize on Gates’s Acknowledgment U.S. Tired of War?
It may have been a coincidence but the latest round of Iranian missile tests came seven days after the outgoing US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates acknowledged that Americans were “tired of a decade of war.”
Israel and the Futility of Attacking Iran: Interview with Abolghasem Bayyenat
Given the largely conflicting political identity of the two governments which in most contexts has defined conflicting foreign policy interests for the two countries , the United States views its relations with Iran as a zero-sum game and will thus struggle to contain Iran’s growing power and influence in the region, even if this would mean swimming against the tide and creating unnecessary costs for its foreign policy in the region.
The Politics of Iran’s Space Program
Iran’s recent successful launch of a second satellite into orbit has drawn considerable attention around the world. As in the past, Iran’s announcement of the launch of its domestically built satellite into space received mixed reactions in the West. Some mainstream U.S. media treated the announcement with skepticism and ridicule. “Before you cancel that European vacation or start building a bomb shelter, it’s worth taking Iran’s boasts with a grain of salt,” one commentator wrotein Wired. “While Iran has cooked up some indigenous weaponry over the years, its desire to puff out its chest and pronounce immunity from the effects of international sanctions has led to some absurd exaggerations and outright lies.”
The Persian Gulf: an “Aquatic Tinderbox”
Due to limited communication between them, a misunderstanding between the navies of Iran and the West could turn into an international incident. Russ Wellen at the Foreign Policy in Focus blog Focal Points.
Shifting Targets: From Iran to Libya and Syria (Part 1)
Invading Libya is about the oil, Syria — eliminating the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean and weakening Hizbollah.