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FOCUS Geopolitics In The News Israel-Palestine War

Netanyahu’s Big Bet To Remake The Middle East Looks To Be Winning — But Is It?

As he launches the unprecedented attacks against Iran, much seems to be going Netanyahu’s way, from the decimation of both Hamas and Hezbollah leaders to the toppling of the Assad regime and softening of Gulf states. But a closer look shows a much more ambiguous picture across the region.

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Society

Iran Bans Women From Going To Male Doctors — Gender Laws, Beyond The Hijab

Recovering from the shock of Iran’s 2022 mass protests, the clerical regime has vigorously resumed its campaign to enforce Islamic hijab rules. But it is also pushing for gender segregation in other important ways across society

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Geopolitics

Will Iran Reignite With The Anniversary Of Mahsa Amini’s Death?

Iran’s regime has tightened its grip on the population ahead of the September 16 one-year anniversary of the death that set off the country’s biggest revolt of recent years.

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Geopolitics Society

After Gay Sex Tape, Iran Regime Now Faces “State Of Intimacy” Revelations Of Woman In Hijab

A scandal of the secret gay life of a senior Tehran official set off ricocheting accusations in the regime. Now compromising photos have emerged of a top state broadcasting manager with a female employee, who nonetheless kept her hair covered. The piousness of the Islamic Republic is ever more called into question.

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Geopolitics Society Women Worldwide

Helpless At Home, Friendless Abroad: How Can Iranians Bring About Change?

With the suppression of last year’s anti-regime protests in Iran, its people can barely stomach the West’s resumption of its business-as-usual approach with the Islamic Republic. The key to challenging the renewed status quo, the author writes, may very well lie with the country’s women.

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In The News

Iran’s Use Of Death Penalty Has Doubled, Targeting Protesters And Ethnic Minorities

Without drawing attention to public executions like it did last year, the regime has quietly continued to mete out capital punishment: increasing both death sentences and the carrying out of executions, on pace in 2023 to double from the previous year.

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Green

Why Environmental Protests In Iran Are Being Ignored

The growing environmental movement in the West, wittingly or not, has given no attention to mass protests in Iran against the clerical regime, most recently focused on the drought conditions and other ecological risks. Had ecologists been hoping to sign a green pact with Tehran?

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blog

Iran’s Zarif Faces Death Threats Over Nuclear Deal

TEHRAN — Both at home and abroad, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has become the public face of his country’s willingness to sign a deal with the West to limit its nuclear program. The Vienna accord, inked in July, has also made Zarif the main target of Iran’s religious hardliners, whom he confirmed Wednesday […]

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blog

Behind The Missing Obama-Rouhani Handshake

TEHRAN — Iranian legislators questioned Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif about why he had shaken hands last month with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The gesture was viewed by many as another positive sign of Iran’s thawing relations with the West, but has irritated the country’s conservatives opposed […]

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Geopolitics

Don’t Trust Rouhani – Iran’s Nobel Peace Laureate Speaks

Shiran Ebadi, 2003 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, says Iran’s supposed reformist leader Hassan Rouhani has done little to improve human rights. Anyway, he doesn’t have final say.

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blog

Snow Reaches Desert’s Edge In Iran

While northern Iran has been hit by record snowfall in recent days, snow has also covered for the first time in living memory, the district of Shahdad in southeastern Iran, which typically has desert conditions and scorching temperatures. The head of the Shahdad district, Mohammad Mo’meni, told Iran’s Mehr news agency snow began to fall […]

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blog

Exports And Embassies: How Fast Will Iran-USA Normalize Relations?

A few months back, it would have made front-page headlines around the world. Now, the encounter between Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of this weekend’s Munich Security Conference, is largely being presented as “routine” diplomacy in Persian newspapers. Monday’s edition of reformist Aftab-e Yazd […]

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blog

Will Iran Be At Geneva 2?

Iranian officials have spent plenty of time recently in Geneva to negotiate a deal with the West on its nuclear program. The next pressing question is whether Iran will be back in the Swiss city for the so-called Geneva 2 conference to discuss ways to try to end to Syria’s civil war. Officials in Tehran […]

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Geopolitics

Obama’s First Priority: Making Sure Iran Doesn’t Cross Nuclear “Red Line”

PARIS – The file will be at the top of the pile on the president’s desk. It is the singular priority for the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA – a political hot potato, a diplomatic puzzle, and a strategic nightmare. It is stamped “danger,” “highly explosive,” and could mean a new war in […]

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Geopolitics

Grenades Thrown Into Afghan Mosque A Day After 46 Killed In Afghanistan

ASSOCIATED PRESS (U.S.), KHAAMA PRESS (Afghanistan) Worldcrunch The Associated press reports that three grenades were thrown into a mosque in the eastern Afghan Khost province, injuring nine on Wednesday, a day after a string of suicide bombings killed at least 46 people in southwestern and northern Afghanistan. The Taliban did not acknowledge the attack, even […]

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