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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.…

Timeline: Iran’s Nuclear Program Since 2018

Between 2018 and 2023, Iran breached several of the most stringent restrictions imposed by the nuclear deal with the world’s six major powers. It enriched uranium to almost 84 percent—far higher than the 3.67 percent allowed by the deal or what would be needed for a civilian nuclear reactor to…

JCPOA Five Years Later: Alternatives

Five years after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the unique international diplomacy, which originally brought together the world’s six major powers to prevent Tehran from getting the bomb, had seriously eroded. New flashpoints diverted attention to other hotspots. By May 2023, the…

JCPOA Five Years Later: Iran's Escalations

Iran achieved an escalating series of advances in its nuclear program—bringing it within days of so-called “breakout” capability—in the five years after the U.S. withdrew from the historic deal originally negotiated by the world’s six major powers. By May 2023, Iran had exceeded several of the key…

U.S. Sanctions Iran’s IRGC for Hostage-Taking

On April 27, 2023, the United States announced new sanctions on Iran for taking Americans and Iranian-Americans hostage. The Treasury Department specifically designated four senior officials in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO), including: Mohammad…

Timeline: Assassinations of Iranian Clerics

Since 1979, more than a dozen Iranian clerics have been killed in bombings, shootings and stabbings by a variety of attackers, including opposition groups. The biggest single attack was shortly after the revolution when a bomb went off at the Islamic Republican Party headquarters. More than 70…

News Digest: Week of April 24

April 24 International: Iran shipped more than 300,000 Iranian artillery shells and a million rounds of ammunition to Russia in the previous six months, officials told The Wall Street Journal. Tehran had emerged as Moscow’s top military backer amid the war against Ukraine.  International: Iran-…

Timeline: Iran-Ukraine Relations

Iran’s military support for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has soured diplomatic relations between Tehran and Kyiv. In September, Ukraine downgraded formal ties with Iran for providing armed drones to Russia. By the end of 2022, Russia had used hundreds of drones on Ukrainian military positions…

U.S., British & E.U. Sanctions for Rights Abuses

On April 24, the United States, Britain, and the European Union sanctioned more than a dozen Iranian government and security officials, particularly those linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as a mobile service provider. The listed men and company had suppressed and…

Supreme Leader Rejects Referendums

On April 18, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the proposal of holding referendums on government policies. He questioned the ability of the public to analyze issues and warned that such votes would be divisive. “For any single issue, the country would be engaged in debate and arguments…

Explainer: Iran’s Strategic Pivot to Russia

Updated: May 18, 2023
Nasser Hadian is a U.S.-educated professor of political science at the University of Tehran and a former visiting professor at Columbia University.   Why has Iran grown closer to Russia and China under President Ebrahim Raisi? How does the shift reflect Iran’s foreign policy more broadly? Iran…

U.S. on Sexual & Gender Violence in Iran

Iranian security officials deliberately and systematically used sexual and gender-based violence against protesters—including children—after nationwide demonstrations erupted in September 2022, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reported in April 2023. The government…

U.S. Sweeping Sanctions on Hezbollah Network

On April 18, the United States sanctioned 52 people and companies based in nine countries for assisting Nazem Said Ahmad, a financier for Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia and political party backed by Iran. The list included six members of Ahmad’s family, 14 associates, and 32 companies. They…

U.S. Sanctions Network Supplying Drone Parts

On April 19, the United States sanctioned an Iranian man and six companies based in Iran, China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia that procured electronic components for Iran’s drone and military programs. The network was linked to Pardazan System Namad Arman (PASNA), an Iran-based company designated in…

G7 Foreign Ministers Condemns Iran

On April 18, the G7 countries and the European Union criticized Iran’s “unabated escalation” of its nuclear program and proliferation of weapons to militant proxies, Russia and others. The world’s most advanced economies also called on the Iranian government to end its crackdown on protesters,…

News Digest: Week of April 10

April 10 International: A bipartisan group of 130 U.S. lawmakers urged the European Union to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. In a letter, the group described Iran as “a leading state sponsor of terror,” and warned that Tehran “has freely and…

News Digest: Week of April 3

Updated: April 10, 2023
April 3 International: Israel reportedly launched a fourth round of strikes in Syria in less than a week. Israel targeted military sites near Damascus controlled by Iran-backed militias, hitting a radar system in Sweida and a glass factory near al Kiswah. Two civilians were reportedly killed. …

Profiles: Iran’s Intelligence Agencies

Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has spawned more than a dozen disparate intelligence agencies that engage in domestic and foreign surveillance. They separately report to different government ministries, branches of the military, or police forces. Under the constitution, the Supreme National…

U.N. Report: Rights Abuses in Iran

In March 2023, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran deplored the “brutal response” of the government to nationwide protests that erupted in September 2022. The Islamic Republic had killed hundreds of protesters, including children, since the demonstrations began. Javaid Rehman…

News Digest: Week of March 27

March 27 Diplomacy: Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian agreed to meet during the month of Ramadan. The two discussed bilateral ties in a second phone call since Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore diplomatic relations in March 2023…

U.N. Court Rejects Iran’s Case to Unfreeze Assets

On March 30, Washington and Tehran both declared victory after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on disputed Iranian assets frozen by the United States. The top U.N. court rejected Iran’s bid to unfreeze some $2 billion in central bank funds held in a Citibank account in New York. But…

U.S. Report: Iran’s Support for Terrorism

Iran was the “leading state sponsor of terrorism,” according to the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2021. The Ministry of Intelligence and Security facilitated a “wide range of terrorist and other illicit activities” in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. And the elite Qods…