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Iran and IAEA: On Past Military Dimensions
On May 21, Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency reached an agreement on five additional measures to be implemented by August 25. Tehran committed to providing relevant information on past high explosive experiment and research and development. The new list of measures follows a list…
Iranian Women Flaunt Hijab on Facebook
Since May 1, hundreds of women have flaunted Iran’s tough Islamic laws by posting their pictures without a hijab, or veil, on Facebook. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist based in London, sparked the movement by posting a photo of herself. “Hijab is being forced on women not only by…
Report: Evin Prison Raid
Security officials assaulted dozens of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison on April 17, according to a report by Amnesty International. The perpetrators, who included Ministry of Intelligence officials and Revolutionary Guards, reportedly…
Tough Nuke Talks: No Progress in Vienna
On May 16, the fourth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the world’s six major powers ended without any tangible progress. But negotiators from both sides emphasized that another round of talks will take place in June and that they still aim to draft a final agreement by the July…
Rouhani Under Fire
Garrett Nada President Hassan Rouhani faces growing pressure from hardliners for trying to improve Iran’s pariah status and, even tepidly, open up Iranian society. In recent weeks, politicians and media critics have lambasted Rouhani in the run-up to the latest nuclear talks between Iran and…
Hagel in Saudi Arabia and Israel on Iran
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel spoke extensively about Iran at two stops of his Middle East tour. On May 14, Hagel assured Arab Gulf states that a nuclear deal with Iran would not harm their security. “We will continue to hold Iran accountable for its destabilizing activities across the…
Event: Rubik’s Cube™ of a Final Agreement
The clock is ticking on a nuclear deal with Iran. The deadline is July 20. An unprecedented coalition of eight Washington think tanks is hosting three discussions on the pivotal diplomacy to coincide with the last three rounds of talks. The first event — "The Rubik’s Cube™ of a Final…
State Department Briefing on Eve of Talks
On May 13, a senior U.S. official cautioned that the beginning of the drafting process does not necessarily mean a nuclear agreement is imminent. “We do not know if Iran will be able to make the tough decisions they must to ensure the world that they will not obtain a nuclear weapon,”…
Rouhani on Eve of Nuclear Talks
In the run-up to talks in Vienna, beginning on May 13, President Hassan Rouhani defended his approach to securing a final nuclear deal with the world’s six major powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Rouhani offered more transparency but warned that Iran’s “…
Hardliners Grill Zarif on Holocaust Stance
On May 6, some 75 hardliner lawmakers grilled Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on his Holocaust stance. He had called the Holocaust a “horrifying tragedy” that “should never occur again” in an interview with a German television station in February. Iran’s 290-member parliament…
Iran Nuke Program 1: ABCs of Issues
There’s no one single formula for a nuclear deal with Iran. The United States compares negotiations to solving a Rubik’s Cube™, because so many pieces are involved—and moving one moves all the others. (The world’s most popular puzzle has 43 quintillion permutations to solve it so all the…
Iran Nuke Program 2: ABCs of Sites
The following is a rundown of Iran’s key nuclear sites. Each will be a subject at diplomatic talks between the Islamic Republic and the world's six major powers. Bushehr Nuclear Facility The Bushehr facility contains Iran’s first nuclear power plant. Its light-water reactor…
Iran Nuke Program 3: ABCs from Khamenei
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has voiced his opposition to nuclear weapons on several occasions during the last decade. The following are excerpted remarks in reverse chronological order. “Even now that reason - including religious and political reason - has made it…
Iran Nuke Program 4: ABCs of Talks So Far
The following is a rundown of key events in diplomacy on Iran’s nuclear program since President Hassan Rouhani took office in August 2013. 2013 Sept. 26 – Foreign ministers from P5+1 countries (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States) and Iran met on the…
Hardliners “Worried” About Nuclear Talks
Iran’s hardliners have been mobilizing against a nuclear deal in the run-up to the mid-May negotiations between Iran and six major powers in Vienna. A conference entitled “We’re Worried” – advertised as “the great gathering of critics of a weak deal”—was held at the former U.S. Embassy…
Four Dimensions of Nuclear Chess Game
Gary Sick A government negotiating with another government is almost inevitably required to conduct a second negotiation with its own domestic constituents whose own interests will be affected by the outcome. The classic image is the negotiator facing his foreign adversary over one table…
Economic Trends : Month of April
Garrett Nada The biggest news in April was a gasoline price hike as President Rouhani began long-delayed subsidy reform. The cost of a liter jumped 75 percent; consumption reportedly declined by half within days. The move follows Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s warning that Iran will…
Report: Improvement in Iran Press Freedom
Press freedom in Iran has improved for the first time since 1999, according to a new report by Freedom House marking World Press Freedom Day. Despite the marginal progress, Iran still ranked as one of the 10 least-free countries in the world— along with Cuba, North Korea, Syria and…
US Report on Iran’s Support of Extremism
Iran used its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods Force and regional proxies to “implement foreign policy goals, provide cover for intelligence operations and create instability in the Middle East” in 2013, according to a new report by the State Department. Tehran also continued…
Rouhani on Freedom, Economy & Nukes
On April 29, President Hassan Rouhani defended his administration’s foreign and domestic policies in a primetime address on state television. He dismissed hardliners who have opposed his outreach to the West and economic reforms that have recently raised prices. Rouhani said that he is…
US Targets Weapons, Oil Sanctions Evaders
On April 29, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned two individuals and nine entities for evading oil sanctions and aiding Tehran’s ballistic missile program. Several of the front companies were connected to Karl Lee, who was designated several years ago for procuring missile parts…
Western Countries Flood Tehran
More than two dozen delegations of lawmakers, officials and businesspeople have visited Iran since the interim nuclear agreement was brokered in November 2013. Many Western countries and South Korea are particularly hopeful that Iran and the world’s six major powers – Britain, China,…
Iran Fact File: Arak Heavy Water Reactor
The following fact sheet was published by Iran Fact File, a project of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. The IR-40 is an as yet incomplete Iranian heavy water moderated research reactor with a…
FM Zarif to Russia : State of Relations
Mark N. Katz Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit Russia on April 22 for a ministerial meeting of Caspian Sea countries. What is the status of relations between Tehran and Moscow? Moscow and Tehran have long appeared to have good relations but they are, in fact, often…
Obama Rules on UN Appointees
On April 18, President Barack Obama signed Senate Resolution 2195 into law, banning appointees to the United Nations that have “engaged in espionage or terrorist activity directed against the United States or its allies.” Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) sponsored the bill in response to reports that…
U.N. Report: Iran Cut Nuclear Stockpile 75%
Iran is ahead of schedule in implementing the interim nuclear deal, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Tehran has cut its most sensitive uranium stockpile by 75 percent and is set to dilute or convert the rest soon. Under…
Rand Report: The Days After a Nuclear Deal
On April 3, the Rand Corporation convened a day-long conference on Iran in the days after a nuclear deal. Participants concluded that that an agreement could herald a new era for Iran and its relationship with the outside world. But experts warned that Tehran would still likely be…
Khamenei’s Red Lines on Nuclear Talks
On April 9, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei outlined six red lines on nuclear talks in an address to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. The semi-official government website NuclearEnergy.ir pulled out his six points and distributed the graphic below. The following are…
IMF: Iran’s Economy Stabilizing
Iran’s economy has shown signs of stability since President Hassan Rouhani took office in August 2013, according to a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Inflation declined to about 29 percent in January 2014, down from about 40 percent in late 2013. But Iran’s “near-…
Iran Nuke Odyssey 1: Under the Shah
Ali Vaez, Karim Sadjadpour (via Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) Conception (1957–1979) The genesis of Iran’s nuclear program can be traced back to 1957. Ironically, it was the United States—then Tehran’s key strategic patron—that sowed the seeds of nuclear development by…