On Saturday, US President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon “to launch a decisive and powerful military operation” against the Houthis of Yemen with “overwhelming lethal force” in the most significant military action…
One couldn’t help but feel a tinge of pleasure in Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian lashing out at Donald Trump. Without mincing his words, and certainly not sticking to diplomatic niceties,…
by Hemshikha Mishra and Ankit Kumar Introduction Is the conflict in Middle East likely to expand? Iran’s quest for a security assurance seems to suggest so. Since his surprising election as…
Until May last year, the fundamentalists in Iran had total control over the presidency, and the country had a strong standing against Israel through its allies in the region. However,…
In early January, most of the major military forces of Iran participated in a large military exercise called Payambar-e Azam (Great Prophet), which started as an annual exercise 19 years…
With the taming of Lebanon, the US backed Lebanon/Hezbollah- Isreal ceasefire has successfully delinked Hezbollah- Isreal relations from the Palestinian question. Now the focus of Netanyahu's everlasting wars have shifted…
Calling for accountability in the murder of as many as 1,500 martyrs killed during the Bloody November 2019-2020 nationwide civil protests in Iran, precipitated by a massive escalation in the…
The election victory of Donald Trump in the November 5 election is being perceived in the West Asian region with growing anxiety as presaging the US aligning one hundred percent…
Abstract In the age brimming with technology and the clamour of enmity is growing each other has leading the man into unprecedent environment. So the recent attack of Israel named…
Israel—which is already waging war on Gaza and Lebanon—said its military struck targets in and near Iran's capital Tehran early Saturday, while explosions believed to be Israeli attacks were also reported in…
The recent string of exaggerated military successes – or at least as they are understood to be – places Israel in a situation it has been previously used to: prowess…
Reuters reported on Friday quoting three sources in the Persian Gulf that the regional states are lobbying Washington to stop Israel from attacking Iran’s oil sites as “part of their…
Israel has apparently shelved its planned attack on Iran. A combination of circumstances can be attributed to this retreat, which rubbishes Israel’s own high-pitched rhetoric that it was raring to go. Despite…
It appears that the recent chain of terrors intensified after the helicopter crash of President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions on May 19, 2024. The assassinations of Palestinian leaders and…
Israel has assassinated the leader of Hezbollah and killed many of its members by way of booby-trapped pagers and walky-talkies. After a blitzkrieg bombing campaign, Israel once again invaded Lebanon this…
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies On October 1, Iran fired about 180 missiles at Israel in response to Israel’s recent assassinations of leaders of its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC),…
The first part of this article, published on 19/09/2024, contained background information and discussion of the experiences of the relocation of the capital city in some other parts of the…
Recent remarks by the newly elected President of Iran have reignited the discussion about relocating the capital from Tehran. Massoud Pezeshkian has stated that, due to issues such as water…
Masoud Pezeshkian, who had vowed to form a "national consensus" (vefagh melli) government, could not deliver. Even though a few ministers are from the prior government, the key positions in…
On May 19, 2024, Iran's President, Ebrahim Raisi, met the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, at the Giz Galasi Dam along the two countries' borders to inaugurate the hydroelectric complex…
The low turnout in the past presidential and parliamentary elections warned the clerics in Tehran that their political base has substantially shrunk. To deal with this problem, they passed Masoud…
The first round of Iran's presidential elections was held on June 28 (Tir 8). Despite the government's high propaganda to encourage participation, the turnout was very low, as only 24,535,185…
The sudden news of President Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter crash on May 19 shocked the clerical establishment in Tehran. In that crash, President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdolahian, and other companions…
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash prompts Vice President Mohammad Mokhber to lead, ushering Iran into a period of uncertainty. Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian President, and the…
Popular Iranian dissident, rapper and hip-hop artist Toomaj Salehi, a 33-year-old former factory worker known for his protest songs and social media posts critical of the government of the Islamic…
One, erratic and often unhinged, blew up the U.S.-Iran accord that was the landmark foreign policy achievement of President Obama’s second term. He then ordered the assassination of a top…
On April 18 the US and UK imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran. On April 17 European Union leaders had talked aggressively about ramping up sanctions on Iran.…
The United States and its imperialist allies will imminently announce new sanctions targeting Iran as the US-led war drive against Tehran continues to accelerate. In a statement Tuesday, US National…
In what is seen as an unprecedented international diplomatic move, the White House has asked the Tehran government if it would allow Israel to engage in a “symbolic retaliatory strike”…
Forty-eight hours after Iran launched an airstrike on Israel, Israeli officials offered indications Monday that Israel is preparing military strikes on Iranian targets, as the US-provoked war in the Middle…
The Middle East has, for some time, been a powder keg where degrees of violence are tolerated with ceremonial mania and a calculus of restraint. Assassinations can take place at…
Israel is under attack by incoming Iranian drones and ballistic missiles. The Jordanian skies lit up with passing missiles and drones as they made their way to Israel. They were…
Iran made all the due preparations over the last few days and then struck Israel with a mighty series of blows with its drones and cruise missiles. Iran's retaliation was…
US President Joe Biden warned yesterday that Iranian retaliation in response to Israel’s highly provocative April 1 attack on Iran’s consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus was expected “sooner…
Tensions between Israel and Iran reached new heights Thursday after the United States warned of an “imminent” attack being planned by Tehran. The Iranian regime has said since Israel’s bombing…
In the midst of Israel’s ongoing devastation of Gaza, one major piece of Middle Eastern news has yet to hit the headlines. In a face-off that, in a sense, has…
Iran's Parliamentary elections is scheduled to be held on March 1, 2024. The elections will be for the twelfth term of the 290 seats of the Islamic Consultative Majles (House…
On September 22, 2023, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his speech at the UN General Assembly, showed a map of "the New Middle East" and implied that the entire…
Theocracy in Iran is based on a legend that a hidden Imam will resurface on the earth and bring justice to the world. According to Article 5 of the Islamic…
“Take off your headscarf, let your hair flow, don’t be afraid my love. Laugh, protest against fear.” In opening a panel discussion titled “The Masha Amini Protests and the Road…
The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by the U.S. and its European allies in the early 2000s alarmed the clerics in Tehran that they may be next to lose power.…
The women-led anti-hejab movement that began after the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, in Iran, is ongoing. Even though the street protests have subsided, many Iranian women…
The clerical leadership in Iran has tried hard to prevent its demise, as is popularly demanded in recent months by Iranians inside and outside Iran. To continue their Islamic rule,…
Women's Day A few days ago, on Woman's Day, an article called our attention to the plight of Iranian women, who are fighting for their freedom and civil rights against…
The Islamic Republic of Iran was the first UN member ever to be expelled from the prestigious Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), tasked with protecting women’s rights and…
In Iran, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, believed to be beaten following her arrest by the “Morality Police” on the grounds that her hair was visible,…
The European Union has returned to the ritual of sanctioning Iran to leverage its foreign and security policies. The highlight of the EU Foreign Affairs Council ministerial meeting in Brussels…
I would like to announce the publication of a new nook, entitled “Iran, Past and Present”. The book may be downloaded and circulated, free of charge, from the following link:…
The ongoing unrest in Iran since mid-September following the death of a Kurdish woman in police custody shows no signs of abating as of now. The unrest has drawn support…
Since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, unrest in Iranian cities has continued. So far, more than 100 people have been killed in the riots, and many political…
The Iranian Human Rights Organization (IHRO) announced that the number of people killed in the on-going protests in Iran reached "at least 154 people". Among this number of deaths 9 were…
‘One day the hijab will no longer be compulsory in Iran, this is part of progress and development’ – Parvaneh Salashouri, reformist lawmaker, women’s faction in Iranian Parliament, 2018 ‘The…
Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the ruling clerics have strictly enforced the Islamic hijab on women in Iran. The clerics require women above puberty age to wear headscarves and…
Iranians took to the streets for a 10th consecutive night Sunday, in defiance of a warning from the judiciary, to protest the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police…
Norway-based, Iran Human Rights Organization says that they can confirm that at least 31 protesters have been killed in the on-going anti-government, anti-hijab protest across Iran. Iran's state-run media acknowledged on…
In the largest crackdown on its film industry since 2010, Iran ordered internationally acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, 62, to serve a six-year jail sentence after he criticised the government. Panahi…
The United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, responsible for military fiascos, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and innumerable war crimes in the Middle East, are now plotting to attack Iran.…
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi says the first priority of his administration during the Persian New Year is boosting employment and creating new jobs. He made the remarks in his New…
by Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin After a 5-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran…
The terrible secret about Faustian deals is that they need a Mephistopheles to nurture them. That said, Goethe’s Mephisto is very different from the crude devil of medieval legend. Goethe…
Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us