Following the sudden death of Iran’s president, Ibrahim Raisi, the reformist politician Masoud Pezeshkian won the snap election to replace the hard-liner, a possible successor to supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Pezeshkian campaigned on a program of change, but not changing the system. He supports negotiating a nuclear deal with the …

And National Security Became Everything In American politics, labeling something a matter of “national security” automatically elevates its importance. In the language of foreign policy observers, national security questions, such as regulating weapons of mass destruction, are matters of “high politics,” whereas other issues, such as human rights, are “low …

This week as well, senior Iranian officials continued to threaten a harsh response to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. They stressed Iran’s right to attack Israel despite political messages to Tehran to refrain from a direct attack on Israel. At the same time, it seems that the Iranian …