Key Points Iran is trying to consolidate politically and appease protesters to prevent sanctions from destabilising the country; this risks backfiring and reducing leadership cohesion. Iran will turn to China, Russia, and Turkey to reduce the impact of sanctions, but…
Category: Iran
US intelligence lack insight into Hezbollah funding
The Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017, which was recently passed by the US Senate actively supported by the White House, will force the US intelligence community, via the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), to quickly assess Iranian influence…
A Closer Look at Iran and North Korea’s Missile Cooperation
On May 2, 2017, the Iranian military conducted a missile test from a Ghadir-class submarine in the Strait of the Hormuz. Even though the missile test failed, the close similarities between Iran’s Ghadir-class submarine and North Korea’s Yono-class miniature submarine…
Growing risk of low-capability attacks in border provinces as Iran doubles down on expansionist regional policy
Key Points Iran’s expansionist regional policies and involvement in Iraqi and Syrian conflicts have revived latent Arab, Baluchi, and Kurdish separatist insurgencies within its borders. There is an alignment of interests between Iran’s various separatist militant groups to carry out…
Iran Builds Soft Power in Georgia to Foster Tighter Nexus With Russia
“I appreciate that Georgia has [a governmental] agency that directly works on religious affairs and with religions. I am very pleased that thanks to the efforts of Georgian government representatives, different religions and ethnic groups peacefully coexist here. That is…
Iran: financial risk assessment
Sovereign risk Currency risk Banking sector risk Political risk Economic structure risk Country risk October 2016 BB B CCC CCC B B Robert Powell (lead analyst); Pat Thaker (analyst). Published 14 October 2016, 2100 GMT. The ratings contained in this…
Trump’s election reopens issue of Iranian nuclear programme
The election of Donald Trump as president of the US has provoked huge uncertainty about the direction of domestic and foreign policy, reflecting the fact that Mr Trump’s campaign was run largely outside the Republican Party, expressed contradictory views, and…
Iranian plan to reorganise Syrian Army
Tehran has proposed a major plan to the Syrian government to reform its military along the lines of Iran’s. The high command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, or Pasdaran, recently presented its proposals for a profound reorganisation of the Syrian Army to…
Tehran tightens grip on Iraq’s INIS
The recent appointment of Moustafa al-Kazemi as the new head of the Iraqi intelligence service demonstrates the control Tehran now has over Baghdad’s security apparatus. Iran’s political and security apparatus has scored another victory in Iraq. Moustafa al-Kazemi, one of Tehran’s…
Volga Tatars in Iran Being Turkmenified
Many observers are aware that ethnic Azerbaijanis constitute more than a quarter of the population of Iran, but fewer have taken note of the fact that other Turkic groups from the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation…