Garrett Nada's Blog

Amnesty International: Executions Spike in Iran

In 2021, Iran executed at least 314 people – more than any other country except China – according to Amnesty International’s annual report on the death penalty. The increase was linked to death sentences for drug-related offenses. Executions “routinely followed grossly unfair trials, with ‘…

Iran Deal: U.S. Sanctions on the IRGC

Since 2007, the United States has sanctioned the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—as well as its proxies and foreign companies that support it—under at least eight executive orders and six laws. “Of the 107 sanctions the Biden administration has imposed on Iran, 86 of those – some three-…

News Digest: Week of April 11

April 11 Economy: Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that some $7 billion of Iran's frozen assets would soon be released. He did not provide further details. State media reported that an unspecified senior official from another country in the region was due to visit Tehran to…

Iran Deal: The IRGC is the Final Hurdle

The last and biggest hurdle to reviving the 2015 nuclear deal was the dispute between Washington and Tehran over the status of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. Leaders and an elite branch of the IRGC had faced several layers of economic sanctions—over support for…

Iran Launches Missiles on Iraq

Early on March 13, Iran launched a dozen ballistic missiles into neighboring Iraq. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that it targeted Israeli “strategic centers” in the northern city of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region. Iraqi and U.S. officials said that the…

Iran Blames US, West for Ukraine War

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed the war in Ukraine on the United States and Western powers. “The root of the crisis in Ukraine are the U.S. policies that create crisis, and Ukraine is one victim of these policies,” he said in a televised speech on March 1, 2022. The “mafia-like…

Iran Unveils New Ballistic Missile

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unveiled a new ballistic missile on February 9. State media said that the missile, the Khaibar Shekan, had a range of 1,450 kilometers (900 miles), which could put its enemy Israel – as well as many U.S. bases in the region – well within its range. Iran’s western border…

News Digest: Week of February 14

February 14 U.S.-Israel: In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) to discuss the Iranian threat. Graham said that an agreement on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal would “fall short of the votes necessary to ratify” it in the Senate. “Consequently,…

Two Years of COVID: Economic Cost

After its first cases of COVID-19 were reported in February 2020, Iran’s economy faced new challenges exacerbated by longstanding problems, including years of punitive U.S. sanctions. More than one million people – in a labor force of 27 million – lost their jobs in 2020. Inflation soared,…

Two Years of COVID: Sweeping Impact

As of February 2022, two years after the outbreak of COVID-19, Iran had fully vaccinated 64 percent of its population. Iran paid a heavy toll before reaching that point. In early 2020, the virus spread across all 31 provinces within a month. Iran became one of the world’s early epicenters and the…