Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Protests in Iran over the past few days have shown the breadth, determination, and sustainability of the opposition movement, with demonstrations not only in Tehran but throughout the country.
It remains to be seen how the Obama administration’s efforts at engagement with Iran will affect the domestic situation, as tensions grow between the opposition leadership’s calls for reform and the movement’s younger members, who are looking for a more fundamental change.
A year of attempts by U.S. officials to engage with Iran has not yet yielded any change in Iran’s nuclear position, but it has succeeded in demonstrating to both the Iranian people and the international community that the problem lies in Tehran, not in Washington.
President Ahmadinejad’s announcement that Iran intends to build ten new uranium enrichment plants further complicates the international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Given the deep economic and cultural ties between Iran and Dubai, the recent economic troubles in the Emirate will certainly have an impact on Iran and may even play a role in the international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
An International Atomic Energy Agency resolution demanding that Iran immediately suspend the construction of its enrichment facility near Qom is an important signal that the nonproliferation regime does not accept rule-breakers.
Iranian math champion Mahmoud Vahidnia's unprecedented act of challenging Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, evidences the changing nature of Iranian society after the contested June 12th Presidential elections.
Russia and the United States are not likely to come to agreement on the best way to approach Iran’s nuclear ambitions any time soon. This issue is likely to be at the top of Secretary Clinton’s agenda during her time in Moscow.
In the aftermath of the P5+1 nuclear talks in Geneva, the focus should be on finding a face-saving arrangement in which Iran could enrich uranium, but below the high enrichment levels needed for nuclear weapons.
The Iranian nuclear program continues to be a major foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration. Changing the behavior of the regime will most likely require a change in its character.