Middle Orient

Some companies have pulled out of the autonomous region following pressure from the federal government, which considers the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports unconstitutional. The head of the US mission in Erbil met with a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official today to discuss the ongoing oil dispute in Iraq. Consul General …

Iranian news outlets are emphasizing the uncertainties facing the nuclear deal as the country’s top diplomat said more guarantees were still needed from the United States for the accord’s revival. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has demanded that Washington offer more robust guarantees for sanctions relief in negotiations over the …

On July 25, the Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative and Future of Iran Initiative hosted a virtual event titled “Iran and Iraq: The struggle for tenable relations.” Moderated by Masoud Mostajabi, associate director of Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, the discussion analyzed the political, economic, and cultural ties and …

After eight months of stalemate in the Iraqi Council of Representatives (CoR), Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his parliamentary bloc to turn in their letters of resignation on June 12 and withdraw from the partially disabled legislature. Even with seventy-three members of parliament out (22 percent of the total members), the institution …

Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced he would resign from Iraqi politics on August 29, prompting his followers to storm government palaces in response and sparking fears that violence could erupt in a country already beset by its worst political crisis in years. Iraq’s military announced a nationwide curfew and the …

The main beneficiaries of the increased revenues will most likely be the office of Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and more importantly the IRGC’s elite branch the Quds Force, which carries out extraterritorial operations to advance the revolutionary principles of the Islamic Republic abroad. …

The Road Not Taken After two weeks in Iran during latter part of January 1979, the height of the revolutionary movement against the dynastic, autocratic rule of Mohammed Reza Ayatollah, I had the opportunity for an extended conversation with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in his tent where he received foreign visitors …

In September last year, when the mother and younger brother of Greek-Nigerian NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo were granted honorary Greek citizenship in a special ceremony in Athens, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was in attendance. When historian Mark Mazower received the honour in January, Interior Minister Makis Voridis was present, while …

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mohsen Khojastemehr stated on Friday that the country is planning to increase its oil production capacity by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) by March 2023. Speaking to IRNA, Khojastemehr noted that that raise would bring Iran’s capacity to more than …

When I joined Ehud Olmert’s government on June 18, 2007, as minister of defense, it was almost three months since planning of the destruction of the Syrian reactor in Deir az-Zor had begun (in late March). I was aware of this activity, having been briefed in late April about the …