Iran Primer's Blog

Yemen’s Tenuous Ceasefire

On May 11, Saudi Arabia announced the start of a five-day humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen. Saudi-led airstrikes against the Houthis, however, continued until just hours before it went into effect at 11 P.M. The Houthis, a Zaydi Shiite movement, took over the capital Sanaa in September 2014. During…

Report: Iran is Top Low-Cost Tourist Destination

Iran is the most attractive tourist destination in the world in terms of price competitiveness, one of the 14 indicators in the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index. Price competitiveness measures purchasing power parity, the cost of access to transportation and hotel…

Senate Calls on Iran to Release U.S. Citizens

On May 11, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling on Iran to immediately release three Americans held there and to help locate another who is missing. Concurrent Resolution 16 passed 90-0. A similar resolution was also introduced in the House of Representatives on April 30 by…

Iranian Generals Dismiss US Military Option

Three top Iranian military commanders have dismissed remarks by U.S. officials who have claimed Washington retains the ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. The commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Ali Jafari, said Western powers would attack Iran if they…

Report: Gulf States Outspend Iran on Military

The Arab Gulf states have a “decisive advantage over Iran in both the size of their recent military spending and the size and quality of their arms transfers and imports of military technology,” according to a new report by Anthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.…

Iran's Economy, By the Numbers

Increasingly strict U.S. and E.U. sanctions during the last decade, coupled with corruption and mismanagement under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), took a toll on Iran’s economy. But President Hassan Rouhani made significant headway in stabilizing the economy after he took office in 2013…

Congress Acts: Senate Passes Corker Bill

On May 7, the Senate passed legislation that would require Congress to approve and then vote on a final nuclear deal with Iran. The “Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015” passed 98-1 – only Tom Cotton (R-AR), a vocal opponent of the nuclear talks, voted against it.The White House initially…

Democrats to Obama: Stay on Course

On May 7, Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), and David Price (D-NC) sent a letter to President Obama expressing support for the nuclear negotiations with Iran. It was signed by 150 Democratic members of Congress. The letter urged the president to "stay on course" and move…

Khamenei: Iran Will Not Tolerate US Threats

On May 6, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that negotiating with the world's six major powers on the nuclear dispute “under the shadow of threat” is unacceptable for Iran. “How dare U.S. officials threaten Iran militarily? In 2007, I said that hit-and-run attacks are no longer possible…

American CEOs Eye Iran

Interview with Christopher Schroeder How often do you travel to Iran?   I have gone on two trips to Iran, in spring of 2014 and 2015. They were coordinated by a small group of members of the Young Presidents’ Organization and World Presidents’ Organization — a global network of some 22,000 CEOs…