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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Sixty-Five Years On: Iran Regime Change Advocates Haven’t Learned from Coup

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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Sixty-Five Years On: Iran Regime Change Advocates Haven’t Learned from Coup

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

Sixty-Five Years On: Iran Regime Change Advocates Haven’t Learned from Coup

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

Aug 15, 2018

Sixty-Five Years On: Iran Regime Change Advocates Haven’t Learned from Coup

By Paul R. Pillar

The Trump administration’s policy toward Iran aims for regime change. Possibly US President Donald Trump dreams of reaching some bold deal with the current leadership of Iran, but he has not laid out any feasible route to one. The administration’s dominant hope instead seems to be that stepped-up economic pressure will somehow lead disaffected Iranians […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 14, 2018

Trump’s Iran Sanctions Are Back: Will They Work?

By Brian O'Toole

On Monday, US President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order detailing the framework for re-imposing sanctions on Iran, which were lifted under the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) nuclear deal, with the goal of getting Iran back to the table to negotiate a deal covering not just Iran’s nuclear weapons program, but also […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 14, 2018

European Failure to Safeguard Iran Deal Shows EU is Still a Paper Tiger

By Robert Czulda

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed that the Iran nuclear deal could be saved. Now, it is highly likely that, even if the agreement is not formally cancelled, it will soon become a façade without any real meaning. President Donald Trump’s recent threats to block any companies still engaging with Iran from business in […]

European Union International Organizations

IranSource

Aug 13, 2018

As Sanctions Return, India Caught between Iran and the United States

By Fatemeh Aman

As the first set of US sanctions against Iran went back into effect Aug. 7, India is applying its negotiations skills—effectively, so far—toward managing relations with both sides.  The United States and its Persian Gulf Arab allies may be able to provide India with enough crude to offset any reduction in India’s oil imports from […]

India Iran

IranSource

Aug 10, 2018

How US Sanctions Impede the Women’s Movement in Iran

By Sussan Tahmasebi

While the world’s attention was on US President Donald Trump’s Twitter war with Tehran the other week, some good news in Iran escaped notice. A group of women’s rights activists arrested in front of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on International Women’s Day were acquitted, after initially being charged for planning and participating […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 9, 2018

Iran’s Turbulent Future

By Nader Uskowi

The news coming out of Iran these days tells the story of a country in crisis. The economy is sliding towards collapse, even before the first round of US sanctions were reinstated on August 6. Nationwide protests are calling for regime change—a dirty word in Tehran up until recently. The Iranian government and its military […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 9, 2018

Is Syria Lost to Iran?

By Frederic C. Hof

The short answer is “No.” A family and an entourage that placed itself at the disposal of Iran while burning much of Syria to the ground will not prevail, provided the United States and its partners begin to push back. Yet termites are at work, and the fulfillment of this proviso is far from certain. […]

Iran Syria

IranSource

Aug 8, 2018

Why Iran and the United States Should Negotiate

By Mehran Haghirian

The telephone conversation between Presidents Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama in 2013, the numerous talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif during two years of nuclear negotiations, and a multilateral meeting last year that included Zarif and then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, demolished many taboos in regard to […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 7, 2018

The Lose-Lose Rut of US-Iran Hostility

By Hamid Zangeneh

The Islamic Republic of Iran has relied on enmity with the United States for its own legitimacy throughout its existence, using it – and the threat of US allies such as Israel and the Persian Gulf littoral sheikdoms — to excuse violence against its own citizens and intervention in regional conflicts. Similarly, the US government […]

Iran

IranSource

Aug 6, 2018

Trump and Iran: Nostalgia for Better Bumblers

By John Limbert

It’s a truism that every president makes us nostalgic for his predecessor. In the case of Iran, US President Donald Trump and his men are outdoing the bumbles and fumbles of Reagan, the two Bushes, Clinton, and Obama, while making those earlier presidents appear as far-seeing statesmen. Earlier presidents at least knew Iran was a […]

Iran
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