ISIS
On December 29, 2014, Iran held a funeral for Brig. Gen. Hamid Taqavi, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander who was killed in the Iraqi town of Samarra, home to a Shiite shrine. The Revolutionary Guards did not detail the scope of Taqavi's role in Iraq. But he was reportedly the highest-ranking…
In late November, Iran reportedly bombed Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, targets in Diyala, Iraq. Tehran used American-made F4 Phantom jets, likely sold to Iran before the 1979 revolution, according to analysis of video by Jane's Defense Weekly. Since ISIS began seizing…
President Barack Obama wrote a secret letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in mid-October to express concern about the growing threat of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to the Middle East and the world. The message, which laid out a shared interest in combating ISIS…
President Hassan Rouhani arrived in New York on September 22 to attend the U.N. General Assembly opening. He spoke at several public and private events before and after delivering his address on September 25. A translation of his speech is included below, followed by excerpted remarks from…
Iran’s policy on Iraq has evolved as the Islamic State (IS) has taken more territory since June. President Hassan Rouhani and one his advisors initially suggested Tehran could cooperate with Washington on countering IS militants. But senior military, political and religious leaders,…
On August 30, President Hassan Rouhani vowed to resist U.S. sanctions in a televised press conference. But he also said Iran would continue nuclear talks with the world’s six major powers. “We hope that we will reach [an] agreement... the tyrannical sanctions must be lifted,” Rouhani told…
Iran’s policy on Iraq has evolved as the Islamic State has taken more territory since June. Tehran has welcomed the nomination of Haidar al Abadi to replace Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. The Islamic Republic has backed Maliki, a Shiite, since he took office in 2006. But the endorsement…
Both Washington and Tehran have indicated openness to working cooperatively to quell the Iraq crisis. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a Sunni militant group fighting the Assad regime in Syria, has recently taken significant territory in western Iraq and now threatens both U.S. and…