4 ChangeLabor and Class in Iran: An Interview with Mohammad Maljoo
Friday, June 23, 2017
Paola Rivetti. This article was posted on MERIP online on May 26 2017. Following the July 2015 signature of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or “nuclear…
64 Years Later, CIA Finally Releases Details of Iranian Coup
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian. This article was posted on Foreign Policy on June 20, 2017. New documents reveal how the CIA attempted to call off the failing coup — only…
After years of battling low-level Sunni insurgency, Iran hit by first IS attack
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Mona Alami. Posted on Middle East Eye on June 9, 2017. The first attack in Iran claimed by IS follows years of low-level intensity Sunni militant activity. Already…
Qatar Real Story
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Robert Fisk. Posted on ZNet on June 10, 2017. Only Shakespeare’s plays could come close to describing such treachery – the comedies, that is The Qatar crisis proves two…
Lessons Learned (and Ignored): Iran’s 2017 Election in Context
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Arang Keshavarzian and Naghmeh Sohrabi First published May 26, 2017 on MERIP Report On May 23, 1997, Mohammad Khatami, who had spent most of the 1990s as head of…
Elections in Iran: Rouhani’s victory is good news for Iran, but bad news for Trump and his Sunni allies
Monday, May 22, 2017
Robert Fisk, The Independent. So it’s a good win for the Iranian regime – and its enormous population of young people – and a bad win for Trump’s…
Alliance of Syrian & Iranian Socialists’ Statement on Assad’s Chemical Bombing & Trump’s Latest Airstrikes
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Joseph Daher and Frieda Afary. The Trump administration’s April 6 targeted missile strike on the Syrian airbase from which the chemical attack was launched, is not a reflection…
US secretary of state issues war threat against Iran
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Bill Van Auken, World Socialist Website. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a threat of military confrontation with Iran Wednesday at a hastily called news conference in…
Trump and Iran: Yet Another Hostage Crisis?
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Robin Wright, The New Yorker. Short of last-minute diplomacy, Donald Trump will inherit another hostage crisis with Iran on Inauguration Day—thirty-five years after the first hostage drama at…
The Simplicity of Iranian Architecture’s Complex Geometry
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Ariana Zilliacus, Arch Daily. This article was first published on Arch Daily on 17 February 2017 Iran’s geography consists largely of a central desert plateau, surrounded by mountain…
Iran in crosshairs as Syrian war winds down
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Ali Hashem, Al Monitor. A new wave of violence seems to be shaking the fragile truce in Syria. On March 19, opposition groups launched a surprise attack on Damascus in apparent coordination with a…
How will Abadi handle Iraq’s Shiite militias Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)?
Monday, April 3, 2017
Ali Mamouri, Al Monitor. Some factions of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) are less than satisfied with the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to Washington on March 19-23,…
Trump and the Middle East: A talk with Ardeshir Mehrdad
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Mehdi Kia: In an earlier interview with Barabari television station you talked about the apparent change of direction in Trump administration’s foreign policy which you called “going beyond…
Will the re-launch of the Mosul battle by the Iraqi PM reverse Trump’s hostile stance?
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Zaid Alisa, Open Democracy. This article first appeared in Open Democracy on March 10, 2017. The highly unexpected victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections sent…
Resurrecting the Antiwar Movement
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Greg Shupak, Jacobin. As President Trump tries to ban refugees, he looks poised to create more of them. The structural logic should be familiar by now — and…
Revolution in Iran: was it possible in 1921?
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Fred Halliday, Libcom. Article discussing the little-known 1920-21 uprising in the Gilan province of northern Iran, and its importance for the workers’ movement in both Iran itself and…
Resurrecting the antiwar movement: possible attack on Iran
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Greg Shupak, Jacobin. As President Trump tries to ban refugees, he looks poised to create more of them. The structural logic should be familiar by now — and…
Trump will ignite a war with Iran, which will be great news for ISIS
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Patrick Cockburn, Counterpunch. President Trump made great play when he came into office with his return of a bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office, presenting the…
Hezbollah and the Workers
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Joseph Daher, Jacobin. Though its reputation has waned in recent years, Hezbollah has long earned plaudits from the Left for its military resistance to Israel. Many, too, have…
Russia Is Not Iraq (and Neither Was Syria)
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Charles Davis, Pulse. With right-wing authoritarians ruling in Moscow and Washington, leftists should find it easy to oppose these evil empires — but some, poisoned by pre-election contrarianism,…
Serving the Leviathan
Friday, January 20, 2017
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi & Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, Jacobin. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s life and death highlight what’s at stake in Iran today. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of Iran’s Expediency Discernment…
Civil war in Syria: interview with Aziz Al-Azmeh
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Ardeshir Mehrdad. Thank you professor Aziz Al Azmeh for agreeing to this interview. Our world is entering a grave crisis. War and terrorism feed off escalating poverty, with…
The Kurdish Question Then and Now
Friday, October 14, 2016
Semir Amin, Monthly Review. The political chaos that has recently dominated the scene in the Middle East is expressed, among other ways, by the violent resurgence of the…
First ISIS, then Iran: Kurdish-Iranian leader has eyes on Iran
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Kim Dean, Middle East Eye. Erbil, Iraq – A small range of hills outside of Kirkuk has been the frontline with the Islamic State since the group fled…
Proxies and politics: Why Iran funds foreign militias
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Karim El-Bar, Middle East Eye. In wake of Arab Spring, Iran’s backing of foreign militias has drawn much attention. Why is this support so central to Iranian foreign…
Will the ‘Iranian threat’ push Arabs closer to Israel?
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Badr al-Rashed, The New Arab. Arab officials and academics joined former Israeli foreign minister, MK Tzipi Livni at a conference earlier this week attempting to unite leaders under…
Five years after the Arab uprisings: An interview with Asef Bayat
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Özgür Gökmen, Jadaliyya. Özgür Gökmen (ÖG): In Life as Politics you refer to the dangers of foreign intervention more than once. Expectations were not high but there was…
Challenging Intellectuals Who Justify Iranian Imperialism; Searching for Socialist Solidarity
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Alliance of Middle East Socialists. Below we print a summary of a longer article by two Iranian socialists who are opposed to Iran’s military intervention in Syria. Their…
Iran in Yemen
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Bilal Ahmed, Souciant. Although a few months old the issues raised here are still relevant (ME4change). The Saudi-led invasion of Yemen has opened new discussions on the Houthis,…
Political prisoners in Syria, Iran and throughout the Middle East
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Joseph Daher, Alliance of Middle East Socialists. The repressive policies and actions of authoritarian regimes to crush popular movements and any forms of resistance have increased the number…