Hossein Askari

WASHINGTON—Most non-economists who survey the Iranian economic landscape tout the regime’s recent successes. They invariably cite some of the following statistics reported by the Iranian government: rapid GDP growth of about 5.5 percent per year in the period from 2002 to 2008 (although it declined about 2 percent last year); declining unemployment, from about 12 percent to about 10 percent; declining inflation, as measured by consumer prices, from about 30 percent to less than 10 percent in the past year; and a comfortable level of foreign exchange reserves, exceeding $75 billion. Such conclusions about Iran’s economic conditions are a distorted summary and present U.S. policymakers with a false picture of Iran’s economic realities. more»

Keyhan Kasravi

BERLIN—Last week, the office of Tehran’s General and Revolutionary Courts announced that thirty individuals suspected of having been involved in organized cyber wars were arrested after a series of complicated intelligence operations in the field of communications technology. This followed a wave of attacks against anti-government websites and blogs by a group called Iran’s Cyber Army. more»

Rasool Nafisi

WASHINGTON—Browsing through the Iranian journals and listening to the current discourses in that country, one might be shocked to find out that a major debate is under way over whether the government is entitled to “cut the right arm and the left leg” of those opposing the regime. But such is the state of discourse in a country that enjoyed a century of secular life and a penal code largely copied from those in France and Belgium, before it became an Islamic state. more»

Gonul Tol

WASHINGTON—The 1990s were marked by hostile relations between Iran and Turkey, which was the direct outcome of Turkish foreign policy elite’s conviction that Iran was supporting the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and had a campaign to export Islamic revolution to Turkey. more»

Geneive Abdo
First published on ForeignPolicy.com

Iran’s most independent politician finally casts his lot with the hard-liners. Is this the end for the green movement, or just the beginning?

Iran’s most watched man has finally made his move. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and the country’s most skilled political operator, had been sending mixed signals since the contentious June election, one day appearing sympathetic with the opposition and the next declaring his loyalty to the regime. Throughout this long political dance, both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the opposition “green movement” appreciated that securing the allegiance of Rafsanjani, a key player in Iranian politics since the Islamic Revolution, would represent a significant victory. more»