If the United States is no longer rigorously enforcing sanctions, then Iran’s glut of deeply-discounted oil represents an attractive and ready source, and China can groom the Islamic Republic to function as its gas station with impunity. Read Here | The National Interest
The Carter that emerges from the historical record—including some recently declassified documents—is an Iran hawk: imploring the wobbly shah to forcibly suppress the revolution; trying to instigate a coup to save the monarchy; and, after the revolution, committing the United States to a policy of regime change. Read Here | Foreign Affairs
An open question remains as to the source of this infatuation with Iran … The answer may have to do with some ideological affinity: the revolutionary character of the Islamic Republic may appeal to parts of the liberal Democratic spectrum, while the generally conservative Republicans are more comfortable with stable monarchies. Read Here | The […]
President Joe Biden is tired of dealing with the Middle East — and, barely a month into his tenure, the region has noticed. The signals are not meant to be subtle, his advisers say. The president has made only one call to a head of state in the Middle East — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin […]
China and Russia are now integrally involved in Iran’s affairs, from its oil and port infrastructure to its defense capabilities. The result of this deepening collaboration has been to make Iran far less susceptible than it once was, either to Trump’s campaign of “maximum pressure” or to Biden’s hoped-for engagement. Read Here | Foreign Affairs
Over the past few months, Iran has been working with China on a sweeping long-term political, economic, and security agreement that would facilitate hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in the Iranian economy. It is also pursuing a long-term partnership with Russia. Politicians in Tehran see the agreements as a necessary means of combating U.S. […]
The imminent establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and two Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, is part of an on-going process of security cooperation going back many years. While that robs the event of some drama, it also increases its significance. It means that the process of ending the era of Arab-Israeli confrontation will […]
Despite Iran’s severely weakened economy its gross mishandling of the coronavirus, the religious-security establishment in Tehran seems firmly in charge of the country and has shown no hesitation to squash any opposition… The United States and its regional allies have to accept that the Islamic Republic is here to stay and find a way to […]
Iran’s view of the Taliban has largely been derivative of its analysis of the relationship of the Taliban to the top threat to the Iranian state, the United States. In this respect, Iranian policy toward the Taliban resembles U.S. Cold War policies that evaluated groups in other countries as a function of their relationship to the […]
A desert oil pipeline that Israel once operated as a secret joint venture with Iran could be a major beneficiary from the Trump-brokered peace deal with the United Arab Emirates. With the UAE formally scrapping the eight-decade Arab boycott of Israel—and other oil-rich Gulf neighbours likely to follow suit—the Jewish state is on the cusp […]
looking beyond borders 