Category: News & Analysis

Remembering the ‘Iranian Spring’ of 1979 — Before the Ayatollahs Took Over

By Mahmood Delkhasteh LONDON — The most dramatic moment of the 1979 Iranian revolution was Black Friday. Within a few days, the Shah was shaken by two subsequent mass demonstrations against his regime and, in order to prevent a third one, declared […]

Pompeo’s Anti-Iran Tour Faces Obstacles of a Fractious Middle East

By Edward Wong and Ben Hubbard RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — In a barnstorming tour that took him to eight countries in one week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo burned with one central message: “The need to counter the greatest threat of all in […]

Iran’s Official Figures Indicate Alarming Unemployment Rate Later This Year

The official unemployment rate has reached 27 percent among young Iranians and over 40 percent among university graduates, says Omid Ali Parsai, chairman of the Iranian Statistical Center. Parsai added that some 550 thousand jobs have been created in Iran […]

Iran MP In Unprecedented Speech Calls For Major Change In Foreign Policy

A member of Iran’s parliament says the country’s foreign policy has “a lot of unneeded costs” and these can “leave us paralyzed on the streets of Tehran”. Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi on Sunday in an unprecedented speech before the start of […]

Lawrence Wilkerson: I Helped Sell the False Choice of War with Iraq; It’s Happening Again with Iran

Fifteen years ago, Secretary of State General Colin Powell gave a speech to the United Nations arguing for war with Iraq, saying the evidence was clear: Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. It was a speech Powell would later […]

Iran committing crimes against humanity by concealing fate of thousands of slaughtered political dissidents

Thousands forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in prison in 1988 Ongoing campaign to deny, distort truth and abuse victims’ families UN must establish independent investigation into crimes against humanity High-profile figures accused of involvement in 1988 prison massacres named By […]

Iran: A Rumor of War

Iran: Rumors of War Dispatches From The Edge Dec. 1, 2018 “The Iran Agenda Today: The Real Story Inside Iran And What’s Wrong with U.S. Policy” By Reese Erlich Routledge Taylor & Francis Group New York and London 2019 Want […]

Iran: national teachers’ strike could herald new era of dissent

Iran witnessed a nationwide strike by teachers on October 14-15. Iranian social media exploded with photos and videos of the teachers’ sit-ins at elementary and high schools across more than a dozen cities. Official Iranian media completely ignored the strike, however, while mainstream media abroad largely […]

Struggling To Make Ends Meet, Iranian Teachers Go On Strike

Teachers are protesting what they say are their low wages. News reports and social-media posts suggest that dozens of teachers across Iran have reportedly refused to appear in classrooms. Instead, they appear to be staging sit-ins to protest low wages. […]

Neoliberal Economics: The Plague of Iran’s Economy

The Iranian economy is mired in a deep recession. The real or productive sector of the economy is paralyzed, largely by out-of-control (and often illicit) imports that have replaced domestic production. Rent seeking, corruption and the looting of national resources […]