Iran Policy

      On July 18, the world’s six major powers and Iran agreed to a four-month extension of nuclear talks after nearly three weeks of intensive discussion. Secretary of State John Kerry (left) said that the two sides have “a draft text that covers the main issues,” but that there are gaps in some…
      On July 18, Iran and the world’s six major powers agreed to a four-month extension of nuclear talks after nearly three weeks of intensive discussion. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that although the two sides “have made tangible progress on some of the issues… there are still…
            Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reemphasized that Iran is prepared to take the necessary steps to prove that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful in an interview with NBC television. “We don't see any benefit in Iran developing a nuclear weapon,” Zarif told David Gregory on…
            On July 14, quasi-official website NuclearEnergy.ir published the most detailed report to date on Iran’s “practical needs” for nuclear energy and an explanation for why it wants its own fuel reactors. It explains the logic behind Tehran’s stated need of a industrial scale uranium…
            Iran’s leaders have unanimously condemned Israeli air strikes and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which began on July 7 and have claimed more than 1,800 Palestinian lives, according to the Gaza health ministry. “Hundreds of innocent men and women and children have been slaughtered……
            Iran’s leaders are unified in their support for the Iraqi government against The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has taken significant territory in recent weeks. But Iranian officials are also sending mixed messages on the possibility of U.S. intervention or cooperating…
            Both Washington and Tehran have indicated openness to working cooperatively to quell the Iraq crisis. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a Sunni militant group fighting the Assad regime in Syria, has recently taken significant territory in western Iraq and now threatens both U.S. and…
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…
            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…
            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…