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Shamkhani Removed from Security Council
After a decade surviving Iran’s fractious politics, Ali Shamkhani was removed as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the highest body in charge of foreign policy and national security, on May 22. The former rear admiral, a young hero during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war who…
News Digest: Week of May 22
May 22
International: Iran decried the G7 statement, released on May 20, that had criticized Iran’s nuclear advances, human rights violations and regional adventurism. The communique was “selective” and “vague,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said. Iran’s nuclear program “is solely…
G7 Leaders Condemn Iran
On May 20, the G7 countries criticized Iran for nuclear advances, human rights violations, weapons proliferation, and disrupting international shipping. “We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s unabated escalation of its nuclear program, which has no credible civilian justification and brings it…
Amnesty International: Executions Surge in Iran
In 2022, Iran executed at least 576 people – more than any other country except China – according to Amnesty International’s annual report on the death penalty. Executions were up 83 percent compared to 2021. The spike was linked to death sentences for drug-related offenses and murder. But Iran…
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…