Covering topics ranging from security and politics to business and society, IranSource draws on written analysis and multimedia content to inform a broader public conversation about Iran from an array of angles and perspectives.

It aims to identify the challenges, opportunities, and policy conundrums facing the US-Iran relationship and present a range of options to address them.

Editor: Holly Dagres

The views expressed in IranSource are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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A Humanitarian Responsibility: End of US Support for Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen

IranSource
Nov 20, 2024

2025 will be a decisive year for Iran’s nuclear program

Diplomatic deadlines and regional factors will force Iran to decide soon whether to strike a deal or seek a nuclear weapon. Either choice will have major ripple effects.

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A Humanitarian Responsibility: End of US Support for Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen

IranSource
Nov 20, 2024

How to wrestle with an ayatollah 

By
Khosro Sayeh Isfahani

If one looks closely, the ancient Persian sport of wrestling might have answers to understanding how to contain Iran

Civil Society
Freedom and Prosperity

A Humanitarian Responsibility: End of US Support for Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen

IranSource
Nov 1, 2024

How the death of Abdul Malik al-Houthi could impact the Houthis and Iran

By
Emily Milliken and Caitlin Miller Hollingsworth

While Abdul Malik al-Houthi is still alive today, his death in the near term would impact the Houthi’s ability to operate and widen a leadership vacuum within Iran’s Resistance Axis.

Conflict
Iran

Content

IranSource

Sep 5, 2018

A Humanitarian Responsibility: End of US Support for Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen

By Masoud Mostajabi

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and ally United Arab Emirates (UAE), pledged decisive victory when they entered into war in March 2015 against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The results thus far have not been the Houthis’ defeat, but tens of thousands of deaths, a cholera epidemic and famine — what the United Nations has deemed […]

Iran Saudi Arabia

IranSource

Sep 5, 2018

Europe Cannot Save the Iran Deal, But it Must Try

By Cornelius Adebahr

You would not know it from reading the news, but the Iran nuclear deal is still alive. The Europeans, however, are faced with an impossible task: to preserve an international agreement that cannot survive without Washington’s backing in the face of an aggressive US posture toward Tehran. In May, US President Donald J. Trump pulled […]

Iran

IranSource

Sep 4, 2018

Iran Can Only Blame Its Woes on the Trump Administration for So Long

By Mohammed Alsulami

The Iranian regime has successfully navigated difficulties over the past four decades, such as domestic infighting after the 1979 revolution, the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, the ensuing economic difficulties, and the controversy over its nuclear program during the mid-2000s. Many analysts believe that these tests immunized the regime to threats. Recent months, however, have proved that […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 31, 2018

Rage against the Elite: How Iran’s Nouveau Riche Profits from Sanctions

By Holly Dagres

“Iran suggested to me a massive Potemkin village, a facade with people at the top partying and people below struggling,” a cable from the US Embassy in Tehran read during the late 1970s. Not much has changed since the turban replaced the crown in 1979, except that now the party is behind closed doors and […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 23, 2018

Hackers Are Infecting Android Devices and Iranians Don’t Even Know It

By Amin Sabeti

Iran is no stranger to the global digital security community. This week, cybersecurity firm FireEye released a report about a network of Iranian accounts and groups on social media platforms attempting to manipulate users and also hack their accounts. Though big stories like this tend to focus on Iranian cyber attacks against Western government interests […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 22, 2018

Declassified Documents Reveal Weakness of Unilateral Iran Sanctions

By Danielle Siegel

The Trump Administration’s May 2018 decision to pull the US out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) made headlines with its promise of unprecedented sanctions against Iran. Strong rhetoric aside, President Trump’s stated policy outcomes are consistent with those of his predecessors: preventing Iran from advancing its nuclear and missile capabilities, discouraging […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 21, 2018

Reflecting on the Iran-Iraq War, Thirty Years Later

By Lukman Faily

This August marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War ending. This tragic eight-year conflict was a transformable event for Tehran and Baghdad. There were over one million casualties on both sides, and the conflict effectively transformed the entire Middle East, too. The narrative of “futile war” comes to mind when one tries to look […]

Iran Iraq

IranSource

Aug 20, 2018

Tehran’s Foreign Policy Originates from the Iran-Iraq War

By Holly Dagres

Every so often, the Iranian Committee to Find Missing Soldiers of the Iran-Iraq War announces the return of soldiers’ remains. A funeral procession of coffins draped with the Iranian flag—sometimes only containing a dog tag—is followed by hordes of Iranians wailing and mourning, as if the eight-year war only ended yesterday. To this date, tens […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 17, 2018

Lessons from the Iran-Iraq War: Iranian Minorities Won’t Lead Transformative Change

By Neda Bolourchi

Before joining the Trump administration, National Security Advisor John Bolton penned an article on how to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement. In it, he also advocated helping ethnic minorities in Iran. Like previous American administrations, the Trump Administration seeks regime change in Tehran. And like the current White House, but more fervently, the […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 16, 2018

Badr Brigade: Among Most Consequential Outcomes of the Iran-Iraq War

By Borzou Daragahi

The burly, graying men in the mismatched camouflage arrived in the late winter of 2003, setting up camp within the green hilly folds of northern Iraq. They were members of the Badr Brigade, a Shia fighting force that had been sheltering in exile inside Iran during the reign of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. They told […]

Iran Iraq
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