Middle East Programs Commentary & Analysis

Our blogs feature thoughtful reflections and opinions on current events in the Middle East & North Africa.

Through our Middle East Programs, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

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Meet our blogs

MENASource

MENASource follows movements across the region and provides news and analysis on current events, including a platform for Middle Eastern perspectives, among others, on major issues—economic, political, security, cultural—that are at stake in the post-Arab Spring era.  

IranSource

IranSource provides a holistic look at Iran’s internal dynamics, global and regional policies, and posture through unique analysis of current events and long-term, strategic issues related to Iran.

All commentary & analysis

IranSource

Mar 17, 2016

اختلاف های ایران و افغانستان بر سر آب هیرمند، تهدیدی برای هر دو کشور

By Fatemeh Aman

نصیر احمد نور، سفیر افغانستان در ایران، اخیرا به خبرگزاری ایرنا گفت کشورش به قرارداد تقسیم آب هیرمند میان ایران و افغانستان متعهد است. اما با وجود اظهارات مشابه، اختلاف نظرها بر سر موضوعی که باعث ایجاد یک فاجعه زیست محیطی در جنوب غربی افغانستان و جنوب شرقی ایران شده، ادامه دارد.

Iran

New Atlanticist

Mar 16, 2016

Is Dissent Brewing in ISIS’ Ranks Over Plans to Strike the United States, Europe?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Top commanders ‘disavow’ shift of strategy away from caliphate-building, says journalist A shift from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham’s goals of building a caliphate to attacking Europe and the United States is reportedly causing a rift in the terrorist group’s upper echelons. A lieutenant to ISIS’ self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, told Martin […]

Iraq Syria

IranSource

Mar 9, 2016

Iran Will Keep Improving and Testing Ballistic Missiles

By Pierre Goldschmidt

Iran’s announcement March 8 that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired several ballistic missiles should not come as a surprise to anyone. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) concluded last year does not bar such tests. UN Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted on July 20, 2015, codified the JCPOA and superseded previous resolutions on […]

Iran

IranSource

Mar 7, 2016

آرایش نوین مجلس دهم با حضور پررنگ تر زنان

By مهرناز صمیمی

شمار نمایندگان زن مجلس دهم ایران، نزدیک به دو برابر شمار آنها در مجلس نهم خواهد بود. افزایش کرسی های متعلق به زنان، ناظران را به کاهش نابرابری جنسیتی در نظام مردسالار جمهوری اسلامی امیدوار کرده است. تاکنون، نتایج انتخابات مجلس حاکی از راه یافتن ۱۴ نماینده زن به مجلس است، و تحلیلگران تخمین زده […]

Iran
Fatemeh Hosseini

IranSource

Mar 7, 2016

Iran’s 10th Parliament: Less of a Men’s Club

By Mehrnaz Samimi

Iran’s parliament is on track to more than double the number of women members, with potential benefits for reducing gender inequality in the male-dominated Islamic Republic. So far, 14  women have made it to the Majlis, and analysts are estimating that there could be as many as 22 – out of a total membership of […]

IranSource

Feb 29, 2016

Iranians Once Again Make Lemonade from Lemons

By Barbara Slavin

No one would ever mistake an Iranian election for an American one. The idiosyncrasies of this US campaign season aside, there are fundamental differences in the power of elected institutions in Iran, which are subservient to a clerical Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A body that is largely appointed by Khamenei, the Guardian Council, vets […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Feb 17, 2016

Iran, Syria, Russia Seen as Top Challenges in the Middle East

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Iran, Syria, and Russia together pose the biggest challenge in the Middle East today, and any notion that there can be an alignment of the interests of Tehran and Washington is unrealistic, three former US officials said at the Atlantic Council on February 16. “We have an Iran-Syria-Russia problem right now in the Middle East,” […]

Iran Iraq

Event Recap

Feb 16, 2016

Future of Iraq Launch

By Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East

On February 16, 2016, the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East hosted a public launch of the Task Force on the Future of Iraq, comprising twenty-five members chaired by Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The aim of the Task Force is to present a coherent, long-term Iraq policy to the incoming US administration that tackles the […]

MENASource

Jan 26, 2016

The YPG-PKK connection

By Aaron Stein and Michelle Foley

In mid-July 2012, the Syrian government withdrew its forces from a large amount of territory along the Turkish border. This move allowed the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Kurdish nationalist group linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—a US- and Turkish-designated terrorist group—to take administrative and military control over the self-declared cantons of Efrin, Kobani […]

Syria Turkey

New Atlanticist

Jan 21, 2016

How Do You Disrupt ISIS’ Social Media Strategy and Safeguard Freedoms?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

NSA Director Michael S. Rogers says online censorship goes to the ‘heart of the whole American construct’ The Obama administration is “trying to come to grips with” how to prevent terrorists from using technology as a recruiting tool, while at the same time safeguarding individual freedoms, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the Commander of US Cyber […]

Cybersecurity Security & Defense
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