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Iran & China: A Trade Lifeline

Updated: July 5, 2023
Since the early 21st century, the centerpiece of relations between Tehran and Beijing has been economic, largely based on trade in oil and consumer goods. China bought Iran’s oil to fuel industrialization, while it sold machinery, electronics, and appliances to Iran to expand its global marketplace…

Iran & China: An Iranian View

Nasser Hadian is a U.S.-educated professor of political science at the University of Tehran and a former visiting professor at Columbia University.   How do Iranian officials view China? What are Iran’s goals in shifting East?   Iran’s policy elite believe that China is a rising power, while…

Raisi Mobilizes Support for Iran in Latin America

In a defiant challenge to the United States, President Ebrahim Raisi flew to three Latin American countries—one only 90 miles from the U.S. border—to deepen Iran’s strategic and economic ties in the western hemisphere. The trip, in mid-June 2023, included stops in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, all…

News Digest: Week of June 19

June 19  Diplomacy: Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited Iran for the first time in more than two decades. Mirziyoyev met with President Ebrahim Raisi, and the two signed 10 cooperation agreements on trade, transit, medicine, insurance, technology and agriculture. International: The leaders…

U.S. Warns Companies about Iran’s Drone Program

On June 9, 2023, the United States warned manufacturing, electronics, and shipping businesses worldwide about the military threats posed by Iran’s drone program. It called on companies to vet their clients and customers to avoid contributing—intentionally or otherwise—parts and technology to Tehran…

Supreme Leader on Nuclear Weapons & Diplomacy

On June 11, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed openness about a nuclear agreement with the West but stipulated that the “infrastructure of our nuclear industry should not be touched.” He also warned officials to be wary of promises by Western governments. “We were hurt in many places…

U.S. Sanctions Missile & Military Supply Network

On June 6, the United States sanctioned six companies and seven people in Iran, China, and Hong Kong that procured technology and parts for the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile and military programs. The network was linked to Iran’s Defense Ministry and four affiliated organizations. Three…

Zarif Firestorm Over Iran's Failure to Compromise

In highly unusual criticism, former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (2013-2021) blasted the Iranian government for its inflexible and unrealistic policies that failed at diplomacy. “Throughout history, we have set our goals based on our desires and ignored our abilities,” Zarif said in an…

News Digest: Week of June 5

June 5 Military: Two U.S. and British warships, the USS McFaul and the HMS Lancaster, responded to a distress call from a large merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil transits. Three Revolutionary Guards fast-attack boats had approached the commercial…

Iran Unveils Hypersonic Missile

On June 6, 2023, the Revolutionary Guards unveiled Iran’s first hypersonic missile, which reportedly has a range of 1,400 kilometers (or 870 miles). The medium-range missile can travel at speeds of up to Mach 15—or 15 times the speed of sound. Iran dubbed it the Fattah, Persian for “conqueror.”…

U.S. Condemns Iran’s New Roles at U.N.

On June 1, the United States condemned Iran’s election as rapporteur for the U.N. First Committee—focused on disarmament and international security issues—and as one of 21 U.N. General Assembly vice presidents. A “representative of Iran’s government is unfit to serve in a leadership position…even…

Leaders Condemn U.S. on Khomeini Anniversary

Iran’s leaders blasted the United States in defiant speeches commemorating the anniversary of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death in 1989. In a televised speech on June 4, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Khomeini’s successor – warned that Western powers were trying to…

U.S. Sanctions for Internet Censorship

On June 2, the United States sanctioned Arvan Cloud, two of its executives, and an affiliated technology company for developing an alternative to the Internet that would allow the government to control or censor content available inside Iran. The technology also restricted Iranians from getting…

News Digest: Week of May 29

May 29  Military: Fourteen people allegedly linked to an Israeli “terrorist team” had been detained for plotting to assassinate people in Iran, the Judiciary announced. Domestic: Elaheh Mohammadi, who reported on Masha Amini’s funeral in September 2022, began her trial in Iran’s Revolutionary…

U.S. Sanctions IRGC Operatives for Foreign Plots

On June 1, the United States sanctioned five Iranian men and a Turkish airline for plotting terrorist attacks and assassinations targeting former U.S. officials, U.S.-Iranian citizens, dissidents, and journalists. Three of the men were affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods…

Iran and Afghanistan Clash over Water Rights

In May 2023, clashes erupted between Iran and Afghanistan after President Ebrahim Raisi charged that the Taliban government was restricting access to water from the Helmand River. The 621-mile-long river flows across Afghanistan and empties into lakes and wetlands in southeastern Iran used by…

Profile: New Security Council Chief

Updated: July 25, 2023
Rear Admiral Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was appointed to be secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the highest body in charge of foreign policy and national security, on May 22. He replaced Ali Shamkhani, a former rear…

Shamkhani Removed from Security Council

After a decade surviving Iran’s fractious politics, Ali Shamkhani was removed as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the highest body in charge of foreign policy and national security, on May 22. The former rear admiral, a young hero during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war who…

News Digest: Week of May 22

May 22 International: Iran decried the G7 statement, released on May 20, that had criticized Iran’s nuclear advances, human rights violations and regional adventurism. The communique was “selective” and “vague,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said. Iran’s nuclear program “is solely…

G7 Leaders Condemn Iran

On May 20, the G7 countries criticized Iran for nuclear advances, human rights violations, weapons proliferation, and disrupting international shipping. “We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s unabated escalation of its nuclear program, which has no credible civilian justification and brings it…

Amnesty International: Executions Surge in Iran

In 2022, Iran executed at least 576 people – more than any other country except China – according to Amnesty International’s annual report on the death penalty. Executions were up 83 percent compared to 2021. The spike was linked to death sentences for drug-related offenses and murder. But Iran…

Report: Writers Detained in Iran

In 2022, Iran imprisoned the second most writers worldwide, according to PEN America, an advocacy group for freedom of expression. “The state of free expression globally remained perilous” in 2022, PEN said in its annual Freedom to Write Index. Key factoids include: Iran detained at least 57 out…

Iran & Russia: Burgeoning Military Ties

Updated: September 5, 2023
Military cooperation between Iran and Russia has gyrated from virtually nothing after the 1979 revolution to a strategic partnership, bolstered by important arms transfers, by 2023. Overall, Moscow accounted for about a third of Tehran’s arms imports during the four decades after the revolution,…

Iran & Russia: Gyrating Trade Grows

Trade between Iran and Russia fluctuated wildly in the three decades after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It plummeted by 65 percent between 2010 and 2015 during U.N. sanctions on Iran, then nearly quadrupled by 2022 after international sanctions were lifted, a new trade route opened, and a…

Iran & Russia: New Land & Sea Networks

Since 2002, Iran, Russia and India have worked intermittently on a new transportation system by rail, road and sea—running 4,500 miles through at least six Eurasian countries and benefitting seven others—that could be a game-changer for global trade. The goal of the joint project is to cut travel…

News Digest: Week of May 15

May 15  Military: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had reportedly built an underground drone base in the Zagros mountains in southwestern Shiraz, Farz province, according to Alma, an Israel think tank. The base reportedly consisted of five drone launch sites and could deploy the…

U.S. Report on Religious Freedom in Iran

On May 15, the State Department released its annual report on religious freedom. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the Iranian government for the crackdown on protesters. “People across Iran, led by young women, continue peaceful protests demanding their human rights, including freedom of…

News Digest: Week of May 1

May 1 International: The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed “The Solidifying Iran Sanction Act,” a bipartisan bill which extended the Iran Sanctions Act set to expire in 2026. “The Iran Sanctions Act is one of the most important tools in U.S. law to compel Iran to abandon its…

Timeline:U.S. on Iran Nuclear Advances Since 2018

The United States has tried two disparate tactics to contain Iran in the five years since the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal brokered by the world’s six major powers in 2015. Both efforts failed. As part of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” approach, he withdrew from…

Report: Iran Accelerates Cyberattacks

Updated: July 31, 2023
On May 2, 2023, Microsoft announced that Iran had been “rapidly accelerating” cyberattacks since mid-2022. The tech giant attributed 24 cyber operations since June 2022 to Iran’s so-called Cotton Sandstorm, which the U.S. Treasury had also linked to cyberattacks on the 2020 presidential election.…