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Women have played a major role in Iranian politics before, during and after the 1979 revolution. They were given the vote and right to run for office in 1963 during the monarchy; in 1978, they held 22 seats in parliament. During the four decades after the revolution, dozens of women from across the…

On December 3, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned an Iranian firm, Shahid Meisami Group, and its director for chemical weapons research. The group was responsible for projects worth millions of dollars that included testing and producing chemical agents. The shop was a subsidiary of the Iranian…

The assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on November 27 generated significant fallout in the wider Middle East and in the West. It heightened fears of retaliation and kinetic tensions in the region. The United States pulled back its diplomatic presence in Iraq. And the Iranian…

November 30 Nuclear: Iran held a funeral for nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated 40 miles from Tehran on November 27. Fakhrizadeh's body was taken to several Shiite shrines, including that of Ayatollah Khomeini, before being buried at a cemetery near the Imamazadeh Salah…

On November 27, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a prominent nuclear scientist, was assassinated in a roadside attack about 40 miles east of Tehran. He was the fifth nuclear scientist killed since 2010. Iran usually blamed Israel, sometimes invoking the United States and often their local agents. Historically,…

The Iranian media expressed outraged at the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading nuclear scientist. Newspapers from across the political spectrum – reformist, centrist, conservative and hardline – published front-page photos of his bullet-riddled car and funeral casket.     Conservative…

Many major powers around the world and in the Middle East denounced the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading Iranian nuclear scientist on November 27. Five of the six world powers that brokered the 2015 nuclear deal – Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – rebuked the murder and…

Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has detained or imprisoned tens of thousands of human rights activists, including peaceful protestors, dissidents, union members, civil society organizers, feminists, students, journalists, lawyers and the unemployed. It notoriously cracked down when millions took to…

Iran vowed retaliation for the killing of a prominent nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was shot to death near Tehran on November 27. Senior national security officials blamed Israel and Iranian opposition groups for orchestrating the alleged assassination. They labelled the killing as…

On November 27, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a prominent nuclear scientist, was assassinated in a roadside attack about 40 miles east of Tehran. Western and Israeli intelligence had long suspected that Fakhrizadeh was the father of Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program. He was often compared to J. Robert…

On November 25, the United States sanctioned two firms in China and two in Russia for supporting Iran’s missile program. The following is a statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “On Wednesday, November 25, 2020, the United States sanctioned four entities…

President-elect Joe Biden’s top foreign policy appointments – Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman as Deputy Secretary of State, and Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor – all supported reentering the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration in 2015 and…

November 15 Human Rights: Iran, the United States and human rights groups marked the one-year anniversary of massive anti-government protests sparked by an overnight gas price hike. The regime did not officially comment, but five days before the anniversary, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei…

On November 18, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi and a patronage network controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Alavi was designated for complicity in human rights abuses, including the violent crackdown on protestors in November 2019. Security…

As of November 2020, Iran had amassed 12 times the amount of enriched uranium – the fuel for a nuclear bomb – that was permitted by the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the world’s six major powers. The deal stipulated that Tehran was limited to producing a maximum of 203 kg (or 447 pounds) of low-…

On November 17, the Office of the State Department Historian released its records on the hostage affair. Students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 to protest the Carter administration’s decision to take in the ailing former shah for medical treatment. Student leaders later said…

On November 17, the Office of the State Department Historian released its records on the hostage affair. Students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 to protest the Carter administration’s decision to take in the ailing former shah for medical treatment. Student leaders later said…

On November 17, the Office of the State Department Historian released its records on the hostage affair. Students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 to protest the Carter administration’s decision to take in the ailing former shah for medical treatment. Student leaders later said…

On November 17, the Office of the State Department Historian released its records on the hostage affair. Students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 to protest the Carter administration’s decision to take in the ailing former shah for medical treatment. Student leaders later said…

On November 17, the Office of the State Department Historian released its records on the hostage affair. Students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 to protest the Carter administration’s decision to take in the ailing former shah for medical treatment. Student leaders later said…

Benjamin Gedan is deputy director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University. He is a former South America director on the National Security Council and also served at the State Department and the…

On November 15, Iran marked the one-year anniversary of the deadliest political unrest since the Green Movement demonstrations after the disputed 2009 presidential election. The regime did not officially comment, but five days before the anniversary, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pardoned…

November 8 Health: Daily COVID deaths reached a record high of 459.  Diplomacy: Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif called for a diplomatic dialogue with Gulf Arab neighbors. "Betting on foreigners does not bring security, and disappoints," he tweeted in Arabic.  FM @JZarif sat down with…

On November 10, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned six companies, two men and two women for supplying electronic components to an Iranian military firm. The United States and the European Union had sanctioned the firm – Iranian Communications Industries (ICI) – in 2008 and 2010, respectively. ICI was…

The Iranian media was transfixed by the U.S. election, with more than a dozen newspapers covering the race largely from their own ideological perspective – reformist, centrist, conservative or hardline.  Conservative and hardline papers focused on the confusion surrounding the result. "Tensions…

Iranian newspapers from across the political spectrum – reformist, centrist, conservative and hardline – closely tracked the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The papers differed in their coverage based on their ideological leaning. Reformist and centrist outlets covered former Vice…

President Hassan Rouhani and his supporters were cautiously optimistic that Joe Biden, the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election, could shift U.S. policy on Iran. “We hope the three-year experience will be a lesson for America's next administration to abide by laws and regulations and…

President Joe Biden’s 2020 election held the possibility for profound economic, diplomatic and security repercussions for the Islamic Republic. During the campaign, he repeatedly pledged to reenter the Iran nuclear deal that President Obama negotiated in 2015 and President Trump abandoned in 2018,…

Iran’s annual commemoration of the U.S. embassy takeover – which became an international crisis in 1979 and made the yellow ribbon a national symbol – was cancelled due to the coronavirus. Rallies were planned in Tehran and other cities for November 3 (the takeover occurred on November 4, but Iran…

On October 29, the Justice Department announced that it had seized Iranian weapons bound for Yemen and sold 1.1 million barrels of Iranian oil bound for Venezuela. The government also unsealed two civil forfeiture complaints for the goods, which were intercepted in 2019 and 2020. The seizures were…