Iran Policy
In his first year in office, President Ebrahim Raisi pledged to stabilize the economy, address people’s basic needs, fight corruption and to better manage water and gas resources. Raisi took weekly trips to the provinces after he took office in August 2021 to learn about the problems facing average…
With the failure of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks in Qatar, envoys from Washington and Tehran traded accusations at the United Nations. Iran “continued to make demands that go well beyond” the 2015 nuclear deal, Ambassador Richard Mills, said at a Security Council meeting on the implementation of…
International diplomacy to revive the historic 2015 nuclear deal failed after two days of last-gasp talks conducted indirectly between the United States and Iran by European Union envoy Enrique Mora in Qatar. “Unfortunately, not yet the progress the EU team as coordinator had hoped-for,” Mora…
On June 4, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Western and “reactionary forces” were trying to infiltrate the country. Iran’s enemies were harnessing popular protests—through social media, psychological warfare and hired “mercenaries”—to undermine the Islamic Republic, he said in a…
On May 26, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran had presented a “new initiative” to the United States, through intermediaries, to restore the 2015 nuclear deal. The diplomat acknowledged, however, that both governments faced domestic challenges in reviving the Joint…
Coming out of a two-year pandemic, Iran celebrated its annual Qods Day – in support of Palestinians (“al Qods” is the Arabic name for Jerusalem) – with parades of towering ballistic missiles and portraits of former Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. drone…
On March 20-21, Iran’s leaders marked Nowruz, the Persian New Year and the first day of spring, with defiant messages about U.S. efforts to economically coerce the government. “Despite sanctions, the government has been able to increase foreign trade, sign new regional contracts, and make…
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed the war in Ukraine on the United States and Western powers. “The root of the crisis in Ukraine are the U.S. policies that create crisis, and Ukraine is one victim of these policies,” he said in a televised speech on March 1, 2022. The “mafia-like…
On the 43rd anniversary of Iran’s revolution, its leaders struck a defiant tone. They criticized both past and present U.S. policy. “Today too, the Americans’ calculations have turned out to be wrong, and they are receiving a blow from a place they had never imagined before, from their own…
On January 8, Iran sanctioned 51 Americans for involvement in the U.S. assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Qods Force. Soleimani was widely considered the mastermind behind Iranian interventions in the region and support for military proxies. He was killed in a…