Iran

Israel and the Syrian crisis
Israel and the Syrian crisis

Israel cannot accept the Iranian settlement on Syrian soil only a few kilometers from the border. IDF airstrikes in response to the Iranian rocket salvo headed for the Golan Heights attest to a regional strategic shift.

Hassan Rouhani
Iranian regional security policies: the cases of Iraq and Syria

Focussing on domestic economic development is the best way to prevent Iran from playing a destructive role in the region. The JCPOA remains key to that goal.

An aerial view over Tehran.
Interview with Khajehpour about protests in Iran

Iran is currently experiencing the largest wave of upheaval since the Green Movement in 2009. We asked Iran analyst Dr. Bijan Khajehpour why people are taking their anger to the streets and how European policy makers should tackle the crisis

Yemeni Soldiers. The war in Yemen is seen by some as a war between Saudi Arabia and proxies of Iran.
The Sparring of Iran and Saudi Arabia

Iran and Saudi Arabia are fighting for supremacy in the Middle East. At least most European media outlets constitute this narrative. But is this really the true situation?

Members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces marching in Iraq, November 2016.
Jihadism vs Muqawamism

The ideology of resistance is a distinct feature of powerful armed groups in the Middle East. It is time to introduce a new concept and, probably, a new term.

Football fans in Iran
A Beautiful Game in Iran?

Persepolis FC Tehran and Esteghlal are the two biggest football clubs in the country. The Iranian regime has come to view football as a useful tool, a circus for the masses.

 

Not only local fisherman suffer from the predrying of Lake Urmia: Salt and dust also severely affect regional farms and their farmland.
Interview with Ecologist Naghmeh Mobarghaee

Severe sandstorms, record-breaking heatwaves: Iran is experiencing climate change. Ecologist Naghmeh Mobarghaee explains how Iran’s largest inland body of water nearly disappeared, and the role of environmentalism in Iranian society and politics.

A house in Yehud, in central Israel, destroyed by a Hamas-launched rocket in 2014
Averting the Middle East’s Next Big War

Recent history is littered with accidental wars. If war breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran could join the fray, with catastrophic consequences.