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Iran

Policy Analysis on Iran

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Articles & Testimony

Conspiracy is like oxygen in the Middle East. Everyone breathes it. And it’s a mode of thought suited to understanding Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. The attacks, after all, represented a sudden shift in the group’s thinking. In the six years following Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, the Shia militants didn’t cross

Dennis Ross

In-Depth Reports

Dangerous Ambitions:

The Challenges of Iran and Hamas

In the Greater Middle East, the United States is currently engaged in three wars: in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and against al-Qaeda and its affiliate organizations. As serious as those conflicts are, they do not constitute the sum of challenges facing America in the region. Indeed, two additional challenges -- from

Articles & Testimony

For years, we were told that the “root cause” of the Middle East’s problems was the Israeli occupation of Arab lands—the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon. Peace would come to the Middle East, according to this view, only when Israel finally

The Potential for Escalation in the Hizballah-Israel Conflict

The critical question of whether or not the current conflict in Lebanon will escalate to a broader regional war is being answered in two overly simple ways. One such analysis is that this is a “meltdown” with escalating violence and mounting pressures for further escalation. A second, equally simplistic view

Jeffrey White

Articles & Testimony

The Rogues Strike Back

Iran thumbs its nose at Western diplomats and continues nuclear enrichment. Hamas’s chief, speaking from Damascus, boasts about kidnapping an Israeli soldier. Hezbollah launches a cross-border raid, prompting Israeli retaliation in Beirut and a return volley of rockets on northern Israel. Just another bleak week in the hopeless Middle East

Articles & Testimony

Iran's Hand in Lebanon

The current crisis in Lebanon has galvanized world attention because it is generally understood that this is not a local conflict, but rather one that represents Iran’s bid to raise the stakes in the Middle East. The fact that several countries are planning to convene next week in Rome to

David Makovsky

Hizballah's Global Terror Option

In a July 17 article in Kayhan, a newspaper sponsored by Iran’s supreme leader, editor Hossein Shariatmadari wrote, “The Muslim nations should not let the engagement [with Israel] remain in its limited regional boundaries. The Zionists are scatted in many parts of the world and their identification is not that

Barak Ben-Zur
Christopher Hamilton

Iranian Public Opinion on the Nuclear Program

On July 17, 2006, Brig. Gen. Michael Herzog and Patrick Clawson addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. General Herzog, an active officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is a visiting military fellow at The Washington Institute. General Herzog recently published Iranian Public Opinion on the Nuclear Program: A

Michael Herzog
Patrick Clawson

Ahmadinezhad's Popularity One Year On

Westerners believe Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad to be popular in Iran, in no small part because of his strong support for Iran’s nuclear program. However, there is much evidence to the contrary. There is limited information available with which to form a judgment about the popularity of any politician or

Mehdi Khalaji

Iran’s Shadow Government in Lebanon

Having come into existence by virtue of Iranian military and financial patronage, Hizballah has used massive Iranian support to transform itself from a purely military group into an armed political party that has had an enduring impact on Lebanese political life and served as an outpost of Islamic fundamentalism in

Mehdi Khalaji

Hizballah Opens a Second Front

The capture yesterday of two Israeli soldiers (eight more were killed) in a crossborder raid by the Lebanese group Hizballah, as Israeli forces in Gaza continued to search for an Israeli soldier kidnapped last week by Hamas and to clear Qassam rocket launch sites, marked the opening of a second

Michael Eisenstadt

In-Depth Reports

Iranian Public Opinion on the Nuclear Program:

A Potential Asset for the International Community

While the international community debates options for halting a defiant Iran's nuclear program, most observers assume that the Iranian people support the regime's nuclear efforts, and that any dissent centers on tactics rather than substance. By this view, nuclear progress is an expression of the country's national pride and its

Michael Herzog

Articles & Testimony

An Open Letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

On May 13, 2006, Mohsen Sazegara wrote an open letter to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in response to Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush earlier that month. Mohsen Sazegara is a visiting associate professor at Yale University’s Center for International and Area Studies, having previously served as a visiting fellow at

Mohsen Sazegara

Articles & Testimony

Deterring and Containing Iran:

A Near-Inevitable Task

On June 8, 2006, Patrick Clawson testified before the House Armed Services Committee’s hearing on U.S. policy options toward Iran. The following is the prepared text of his remarks. The United States will almost certainly have to deter and contain Iran for the foreseeable future -- almost like the Cold

Patrick Clawson

Facing Iran's Challenge:

Safeguarding Oil Exports from the Persian Gulf

In a June 4 speech marking the anniversary of the death of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a warning to the United States in the crisis of over Iran’s nuclear program. “If the Americans make a wrong move toward Iran, the shipment of

Simon Henderson

Iranian Azeris:

A Giant Minority

Brewing discontent among Iran's Azeri population has potential implications for U.S. and Western policy toward Tehran.

Ali M. Koknar

International Pressure and Internal Conflict

As the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany consult today about what measures to take to influence Iran’s decisions about its nuclear program, it is worth evaluating what impact outside pressure would have on President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad’s administration and its ability to overcome internal political and

Mehdi Khalaji

Articles & Testimony

Exposing the Myth of Lasting Iranian-Turkish Amity

With Iran's nuclearization a hot button issue, analysts are asking how Turkey, the only NATO country bordering Iran, would respond if the United States imposed sanctions on Tehran or chose a military option to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. There is one answer that American policymakers will hear

Articles & Testimony

The Myth of 1639 and Kasri Sirin

With Iran's nuclearization a hot button issue, analysts are asking how Turkey, the only NATO country bordering Iran, would respond if the U.S. imposed sanctions on Tehran or chose a military option to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. There is one answer that American policymakers will hear in

In-Depth Reports

U.S. Policy toward Iran

On May 11, 2006, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns delivered the Michael Stein Address on U.S. Middle East Policy at The Washington Institute's annual Soref Symposium. Following is a full transcript of his remarks. I want to present to you some thoughts about the way we

Nicholas Burns

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Supported by the

Viterbi Program on Iran and U.S. Policy

Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran poses the most serious and urgent set of security challenges to the United States and its allies in the greater Middle East. Since the Khomeini revolution in 1979, Iran has sought to export its radical ideology through the use of terrorism, subversion, and support to ideological fellow-travelers throughout the Muslim world.

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Featured experts

Farzin Nadimi

Farzin Nadimi, a Senior Fellow with The Washington Institute, is a Washington-based analyst specializing in the security and defense affairs of Iran and the Persian Gulf region.

Patrick Clawson

Patrick Clawson

Patrick Clawson is the Morningstar Senior Fellow and Research Counselor at The Washington Institute.

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