Nuclear Program

The Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran has severely damaged the Islamic Republic’s economy, which has contracted almost 10% in the nearly two years since the U.S. withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Iran’s recent high-profile violations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action are calculated to incrementally push the envelope and show that it can ramp up illicit enrichment activities while keeping its breakout time – the time needed to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon – long enough to forestall a crisis.

As policymakers continue to focus on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, they aren’t paying enough attention to another danger—Tehran’s pursuit of chemical and biological weapons (CW and BW, respectively). The regime has operated—and may still carry on with—CW and BW programs, but much of the credible open-source reporting on them is several years old. The Trump administration has taken some good initial steps to publicize Iran’s CW program.

Federica Mogherini is determined to rescue the Iran deal.

But as she and her EU foreign affairs team put on their bravest face with a lot of resolute talk around Brussels’ fabled “blocking statute” – designed to shield European companies from the extraterritorial reach of looming American sanctions – there’s cold comfort on the continent.

Iran Deal Pitfalls to Avoid in North Korea Negotiations

With the Syrian civil war–a conflict in which nearly 500,000 people have been killed and over 12 million have been displaced—entering its eighth year, the Assad regime’s Iranian-backed brutality shows no signs of abating. The Islamic State has been largely uprooted in Syria, and Assad and his allies have resumed focus on reconquering and consolidating their control over lost territory. Priority one has been Eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb which is the last rebel-held enclave in the capital region.    

Iran is continuing to stonewall the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s probe into Iran’s alleged nuclear weaponization activities.