The Iran File

Articles — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:35:00 -0400

As Arab presidents, emirs, and kings lined up alongside the United Nations secretary general and the Pakistani, Malaysian, and Turkish heads of state in last month’s Arab League summit in Riyadh, one key player was missing at the highest level: Iran. Its nominal head of state, Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, was not invited to the summit. Instead the relatively weak foreign minister, Manoucher Mottaki, attended on behalf of the Islamic Republic.

On the surface, this fits the caricature narrative that has emerged in policy and media circles on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean: Saudi Arabia, the bulwark of Sunni… more

Iraq's Iranian Connection

Articles — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Ayatollah Khomeini and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi hardly agreed on anything. The two regimes they led--an authoritarian, western-oriented monarchy and an authoritarian, cleric-dominated Islamic Republic--presented dramatic contrasts. Culturally, politically, economically, socially, the two men could not be further apart. On one issue, however, the two men--and two regimes--agreed: Saddam Hussein's Baathist Iraq was a dangerous, unpredictable threat on Iran's border.

The US defeat of Iraq in 2003 thus eliminated a modern strategic rival of Iran (the earlier defeat of the Taliban eliminated another Tehran foe). This historical context is important to remember as Iran jockeys for influence in post-Saddam Iraq.… more

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The Iran File

Iraq's Iranian Connection