Archive
On April 13, the United States, Britain and France launched strikes in response to Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons in the rebel enclave of Douma. U.S. aircraft, including B-1 bombers, and at least three warships participated in the attack on three sites related to the regime’s chemical… Read More
Iran has aided and abetted the Assad dynasty since the 1979 revolution. The following is a timeline of its intervention in Syria's civil war since 2011. For a separate rundown of Iran’s military involvement and Israel’s response, click here.
2011
March 2011: Turkish authorities seized weapons… Read More
Since mid-2011, Iran’s military intervention in Syria has grown steadily. By 2015, at least eight Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) generals had been killed in Syria. As of February 2018, Iranian forces and their proxies were deployed in nearly 40 facilities—including headquarters,… Read More
President Donald Trump has warned that he would withdraw from the nuclear deal if the United States and European partners cannot agree on ways to fix its alleged flaws. The administration is aiming to sign a supplemental agreement that deals with the sunset clauses and Iran’s missile program. Trump… Read More
A bipartisan group of more than 100 national security experts, known as the National Coalition to Prevent an Iranian Nuclear Weapon, has urged President Donald Trump to maintain the U.S. commitment to the nuclear deal. “Ditching it would serve no national security purpose,” they argued in a… Read More
On March 23, the United States issued sanctions and criminal indictments against an Iranian hacker network that targeted hundreds of U.S. and foreign universities, dozens of U.S. companies and government agencies and the United Nations. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets… Read More
On March 22, 2018, President Donald Trump announced that John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will replace National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster. Bolton served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. An outspoken critic of the… Read More
On March 19, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a press release highlighting existing guidance “to underscore the U.S. Government’s ongoing commitment to ensure that the Iranian people can exercise their universal right to freedom of expression and can freely access information via the Internet… Read More
On March 20, Iran’s top leaders marked Nowruz, the Persian New Year and the first day of spring, with televised addresses to the nation. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged that the past year featured “a mixture of peaks and troughs, sweet and bitter events, just like other stages of… Read More
President Donald Trump has warned that he would withdraw from the nuclear deal if the United States and European partners cannot agree on changes to the agreement. Since he issued his ultimatum on January 12, diplomats have been working to find common ground. In early March, the State Department’s… Read More
On March 19, President Donald Trump issued a statement ahead of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. He used the occasion to condemn Iran’s leaders and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is Iran’s most powerful security and military organization. It is also the most powerful economic… Read More
The U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran has observed a “worrying” trend since her last report in August 2017. “Despite assurances from the Government, improvements are either not forthcoming or are being implemented very slowly and in piecemeal,” according to an advance… Read More
On March 12, the BBC said its journalists will appeal directly to the United Nations over alleged “persecution and harassment” by Iran of its Persian Service staff. The BBC has said that staff in London and/or their families in Iran have been targets of threats, arrests and travel bans. More than… Read More
On March 12, President Donald Trump, like his predecessors, renewed the national emergency with respect to Iran. The following is the full text of the White House press release and Trump’s letter to Congress.
CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO IRAN
On March 15, 1995,… Read More
On March 9, four followers of Grand Ayatollah Sadegh Hossein Shirazi, an outspoken critic of Iran’s clerical leadership, climbed onto the first-floor balcony of Iran’s embassy in London and took down the flag. They waived blue-and-white flags of a U.K.-based Shiite group called Khodam al Mahdi,… Read More
On February 19, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif renewed his call for a new framework for security in the Persian Gulf region. For years, he has proposed a dialogue forum that would include the primarily Sunni Gulf states, Iraq and Shiite Iran to reduce tensions. He recently outlined… Read More
On February 27, General Joseph Votel, told the House Committee on Armed Services that Iran remains “the major threat to U.S. interests and partnerships in the Central Region,” which extends from Egypt to Pakistan and from Kazakhstan to Yemen. He warned that the competition between Iran and Saudi… Read More
On February 18, former Secretary of State John Kerry pushed back against critics of the Iran nuclear deal, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the Munich Security Conference, Netanyahu warned that Iran would be on its way to having a nuclear arsenal in 10 years. During a later… Read More
From February 11-16, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with officials in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey during a tour of the Middle East. Iran's rising influence in the region, the nuclear agreement, and the latest incident between Israel and Iran in Syria, were topics of discussion… Read More
On February 15, the State Department issued a statement on the seven-year anniversary of the house arrest of three Iranian opposition leaders. “The United States calls on Iran to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all individuals in Iran consistent with its international… Read More
On February 11, President Hassan Rouhani proposed a referendum to heal political divisions during his speech marking the 39th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
“If we have differences, we must refer to Article 59 of the constitution ... which says, in certain cases of passing laws or… Read More
On February 13, Director of National Intelligence Daniel R. Coats released the annual "Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community." At a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Coats and his counterparts from the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Defense… Read More
On February 10, tensions between two regional rivals escalated after an Israeli combat helicopter reportedly intercepted an Iranian drone that crossed the Syria-Israel border. IDF spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus told CNN that Israel tracked the unmanned craft from its launch from the Iranian T-4… Read More
On February 11, Iranians celebrated the 39th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. The popular uprising, led by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, led to the ouster of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi and ended centuries of dynastic rule. Each year, Iranians hold mass rallies across the country and… Read More
President Hassan Rouhani issued a call for unity as Iranians celebrated the Islamic revolution’s 39th anniversary. “Today, we need everyone, including principlists, reformists, moderates, and everyone who recognizes the constitution, for the country’s development and progress,” he told thousands… Read More
On February 2, the U.S. Defense Department released a Nuclear Posture Review at the direction of the Trump administration. The document, a product of a year’s worth of analysis and deliberations across government agencies, describes the roles nuclear weapons play in U.S. national security strategy… Read More
Tehran police have reportedly arrested 29 people, mostly women, for appearing in public without a hijab (head covering), according to Iranian media. Women have increasingly taken to street corners and squares by themselves or in small groups to protest the modest dress code imposed after the 1979… Read More
Support for the nuclear deal among Iranians is slipping, according to a new poll by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and IranPoll.com. Since June 2017, support for the deal fell by 12 points to 55 percent. Three fourths of respondents said the deal has not… Read More
Large majorities of Iranians are critical of the government’s economic mismanagement and want it to do more to fight corruption, according to a new poll by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland and IranPoll.com. Half of respondents said unemployment or youth unemployment are… Read More
On the first of the “10 Days of Dawn,” which commemorate the 1979 revolution and Ruhollah Khomeini’s return from exile, President Hassan Rouhani gave a speech on economic development, Iran’s resistance to outside powers and U.S. intervention in the region. The following are excerpts from his… Read More