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MENASource

Sep 23, 2025

A geography of protest: Inside the rise of Iran’s minority factor

By
Mohammed A. Salih

From the death of Mahsa Jina Amini to the Twelve Day War, the ethnic question has emerged as a significant dimension of Iran’s politics.

Civil Society
Iran


MENASource

Sep 23, 2025

Iran’s minorities and policy complexity: A look at two communities

By
David Sklar

Iran plays a significant role in Middle Eastern geopolitics. Policymakers should develop a sober, accurate mapping of its population.

Civil Society
Iran


MENASource

Sep 19, 2025

How Israel’s strike on Doha is forcing a Gulf security reckoning

By
Giorgio Cafiero

The Gulf monarchies have displayed strong unity at a time when rethinking twenty-first-century Gulf security is no longer optional.

Israel
Middle East

READ More from MENASOURCE

Through our Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, 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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Content

SyriaSource

Sep 18, 2018

From Syria with love, Senator McCain

By Jomana Qaddour and Suzanne Meriden

The Arab Spring forever altered the lives of Syrian-Americans. The community now refers to life before and after the start of the Syrian revolution.

Syria

IranSource

Sep 18, 2018

New Hardline Voices Rise in Iran’s Theocratic Center

By Rohollah Faghihi

On August 16, a number of young hardline clerics held an anti-government protest in Qom that highlighted differences among conservatives. The rally was supposed to be against “financial corruption” and “government mismanagement,” but the banners held by the attendees, which contained messages threatening moderate President Hassan Rouhani, turned the event into an even more controversial […]

Iran

IranSource

Sep 17, 2018

Iran’s Human Rights Situation and Trump Administration Policies

By Masoud Mostajabi

Iran’s human rights record continues to deteriorate but there are effective ways to advocate for improvement that include making demands as specific as possible and enlisting broad multilateral support. These were the main conclusions of a September 13 panel on the topic organized by the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative. The system imposed in […]

Iran

MENASource

Sep 17, 2018

One year later, the UN Action Plan for Libya is dead

By Elissa Miller

In September 2017, on the sidelines of a gathering of global leaders at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Libya Ghassan Salame presented an “action plan” for Libya that aimed to surmount Libya’s political stalemate and address persistent instability.

Libya

In the News

Sep 17, 2018

Slavin in the Interpreter: Trump to Take on Iran at UN Security Council Table

By Barbara Slavin

Read the full article here.

Iran

IranSource

Sep 17, 2018

Trump’s Iran Endgame Undermines Major US Security Interests

By Sina Toossi

The logical conclusion of the Trump administration’s Iran policy seems not to be regime change but regime collapse. Though Secretary of Defense James Mattis has denied that either are on the agenda, the White House’s rhetoric and actions betray a different motive. The US president himself has trumpeted the harsh impact of reinstated sanctions and […]

Iran

IranSource

Sep 14, 2018

Ahmadinejad Tried Making a Comeback—Until Iran’s Judiciary Stepped In

By Arash Azizi

As is the norm for most authoritarian regimes, fortunes rise and fall quickly for men of power in Iran. But the former chief of staff and vice president of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had it coming for a long time. As the closest confidante of the former president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei has long been despised by much […]

Iran

IranSource

Sep 13, 2018

Why on Earth is former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tweeting?

By Holly Dagres

Over the past year and a half, the former Iranian president has been a social media enigma. All of Ahmadinejad’s tweets are in English—leading many to believe that he's not the author.

Iran

SyriaSource

Sep 12, 2018

The Syrian detainee that saved a German journalist: The dangers of being a foreign correspondent in Syria

By Mansour Omari

Syria ranks as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with arrests, kidnappings, executions, bombings, and shelling the leading causes of death for journalists in the country. While local Syrian journalists bare the brunt of the regime’s violence, many foreign journalists are targeted by the regime while reporting during battles and otherwise due to their role in shaping international coverage of the conflict.

Syria

IranSource

Sep 12, 2018

Iran Through the Lens of al-Qaeda

By Nelly Lahoud

As the United States solemnly commemorates the seventeenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, questions about the relationship of Iran and al-Qaeda linger. Over the years, US courts have ruled that Iran provided al-Qaeda support to carry out its signature attacks, namely the 1998 East Africa bombings, the USS Cole in Yemen, and the […]

Iran
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Experts

Fellow

Alan Pino

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

Intelligence Iran

Fellow

Owen J. Daniels

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Nicholas Hopton

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

Europe & Eurasia Iran

Millennium fellow

Said El Khoury

Senior Piping Engineer, Consolidated Contractors Company

Millennium Leadership Program

Energy & Environment Middle East

Fellow

Amir Asmar

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative

Intelligence Israel

Fellow

David H. Young

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Transatlantic Security Initiative

Afghanistan Conflict
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