Traditionally, a few months before a presidential election in Iran, the government opens the public sphere, giving more freedom to the press, more space for activists to speak out and even loosening social restrictions like the one on women’s clothing… Continue Reading
Why does last week’s appointment of a high-ranking member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the country’s new oil minister matter? Writes Omid Memarian in Inter Press Service: The pressure on parliament to approve the posting appeared to be… Continue Reading
Our IPS colleague Omid Memarian has a piece up at the wire explaining Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s sudden Monday firing of his foreign minister, Manoucher Mottaki. Memarian’s piece draws on Iranian sources to describe the political context of, and gauge reactions… Continue Reading
News and views relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for November 19, 2010. The Washington Post: The Post‘s increasingly neoconservative editorial board, led by Fred Hiatt, is challenging Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s opposition to a military strike on Iran. “To be clear:… Continue Reading
News and views relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 10. The Washington Post: The Post’s editorial board writes that while sanctions have constricted the Iranian economy, the White House “has yet to produce tangible results” in bringing Iran into compliance… Continue Reading