The Saudi-Iranian beheading fiasco, and the oil price
The Sheikh Nimr execution in Saudi Arabia sparked massive tensions with Iran, or so it seems. Iran analyst Potkin Azarmehr says it was a manufactured crisis to spike the falling oil price
- 28 January 2016The JCPOA and the Supreme Leader’s masterful politics
The way in which Iran's Supreme Leader got the nuclear deal through domestically has high comedic value, which is more than can be said for the deal itself which isn't funny at all
- 19 October 2015The Iran deal will bring grave danger
The nuclear deal will lead to danger for Israel and to the wider West. With the withdrawal of sanctions in the near future Iran will continue to escalate its belligerence, funding, and its support of terrorist activities. No one can say that the US Senators have not been forewarned about the danger ahead
- 8 September 2015Iranian nukes: a bad deal we'd be foolish to reject?
For sceptics, there is a depressing logic to the Iran nuclear deal. If it is trashed by Congress on the grounds Iran will not mend its ways, Iran will probably push harder for nukes, and sanctions will go anyway. It's a bad deal that we've got to accept, however reluctantly
- 23 August 2015Iran deal: Obama's global multiculturalism gone mad
It's official. The Iran deal proves beyond doubt that Obama's central foreign policy ambition is to leave the world a more dangerous place than he found it. It is global multiculturalism gone mad
- 15 July 2015PROFILE: Becoming the president of Iran
What is it with the presidents of the Islamic Republic who always fair so badly in the grizzly power struggle in this religious dictatorship and who pulls the strings in the Islamic Republic?
- 2 March 2015Hassan Rohani: Iran's "rational" president-elect
Hassan Rohani is indeed rational: He will continue to play for time, he will continue to strengthen Iran's economy, and he will continue to advance Iran’s nuclear programme
- 24 June 2013Gmail blocked in Iran?
Has Gmail been blocked in Iran in the run up to Friday's election?
- 13 June 2013Why Iranian elections won't matter (thanks to Obama)
Obama offered Iran's despots cooperation, and they responded with competition – revealing Obama's much touted "soft power" to be very soft indeed
- 4 June 2013Elections won’t change Iran
The events of this week remind us that the Islamic Republic remains a harsh theocracy – and that almost certainly won’t change no matter who prevails in next month’s “democratic election” for President
- 23 May 2013Rafsanjani: "It's not possible to run [Iran] worse than this"
Disqualified presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has criticised Iran's Guardian Council, calling them "ignorant"
- 23 May 2013When elections are free and fair - broadly speaking
US foreign policy and any claim to moral leadership have plummeted under the current U.S. administration - never more so than in the case of Iran
- 22 May 2013Iran: elections without democracy
It’s difficult to say with any certainty who will emerge victorious from Iran's presidential election, but as long as Islamists retain the consensus, democracy will remain in the shadows
- 2 May 2013Iranian presidential hopeful slams Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial
The front runner in the Iranian presidential elections has slammed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for holocaust denial as well as antagonising the West
- 25 April 2013Sham elections for a new form of totalitarian rule
The upcomming election in Iran has nothing to do with democracy. It is nothing more than a ceremonial event held by, and for the benefit of, a third form of totalitarian rule
- 3 March 2013