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Newest Publications
Hassan Rowhani: A Honey Trap for Iran and the World?
Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall
Publications by Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall
Hassan Rowhani: A Honey Trap for Iran and the World?
http://www.shomanews.com/News/?Id=7210 Sayyed Hassan Rowhani, who adopted the color purple during the election campaign, won an overwhelming victory in the first round of the Iranian presidential election with a majority of over 50 percent, leaving Saeed Jalili (who came in second), ... Read More »
Who Brought Iran Close to a Nuclear Bomb? The Focal Point of Rowhani’s and Jalili’s Election Propaganda
With a few days remaining before the June 14 presidential elections in Iran, the most fraught, sensitive issue in the campaign concerns Iran’s foreign policy – its relations with the West in general and the nuclear talks in particular. Read More »
Iranian Presidential Candidate Saeed Jalili Calls for Enrichment to 100 Percent
The Iranian nuclear file is one of the burning issues in the current presidential campaign. Two candidates, Saeed Jalili and Hasan Rowhani, have served as Iranian negotiators with the West and flaunt this fact in their election propaganda. Jalili currently ... Read More »
Iran Fears Growing Israel-Azerbaijan Cooperation
Tehran increasingly fears that Azerbaijan is turning into a base for a military attack on its nuclear facilities. Read More »
After Failed Negotiations, Iran Weighs a Nuclear “Breakout”
It does not appear that Iran intends to give up its nuclear activity; instead, it is waiting for the right moment to “break out.” Read More »
Iran’s Attempted Rapprochement with Egypt: Implications for Sunni-Shiite Relations
In the wake of the Arab Spring there is a closing of ranks in the Arab world along Sunni Islamic and less Arab-nationalist lines. Read More »
Iranian Policy Toward Direct Nuclear Talks with the U.S.
Iran will not hasten to renew the dialogue with the United States, and will want to engage in such talks only from a position of strength. Read More »
Iran: Sanctions Biting, Nuclear Program Progressing
Iran is prepared to pay the price of sanctions, believing it will be able to contain any popular protests as it has done in the past. Read More »
Iran’s Response to Netanyahu’s UN Speech:
Israel, Not Iran, Is the Problem
Iran’s leadership, UN representatives, and state-run media responded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN speech with a coordinated line that presents Israel as the problem instead of Iran, which is said to be pursuing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes ... Read More »
Iran Ramps Up Its Genocidal Rhetoric
Iran is using of the Palestinian issue and denial of Israel’s right to exist to win the hearts and minds of Muslims across the Middle East. Read More »
Iran’s Latest Missile Exercise: A Message of Force Projection
Vol. 12, No. 16 On July 2-4, 2012, the Aerospace Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) conducted a missile exercise, dubbed Great Prophet 7, which involved firing dozens of missiles at a target that resembled a U.S. airbase ... Read More »
The Role of Iranian Security Forces in Syria
Amid the intensifying crisis in Syria, which in recent weeks has seen massacres of the civilian population in various parts of the country, Iranian military, propaganda, and economic assistance keeps flowing in, and its aim is help President Bashar al-Assad survive. Read More »
Iran’s Leaders Say: “Destroy Israel”
Calls for Israel’s destruction are being voiced by a broad spectrum of the Iranian leadership. Read More »
Ahmadinejad in Abu Musa: Iran’s Lengthening Shadow in the Gulf
In response to the mounting Iranian challenge in the Gulf, the need for American power in the region has only grown. Read More »
Iran Targets Yemen
Iran regards Yemen as a springboard for subversion and for creating a tangible threat to Saudi Arabia. Read More »
Iran Takes Off the Gloves
It is no longer clear that Iran sees carrying out an attack in the U.S. as crossing some sort of red line. Read More »
Iran: The Syrian Highway in the Fight Against Israel Is Still Open
The wave of protest in Syria has put to the test the strategic alliance between Iran (and Hizbullah) and Bashar Assad’s regime. Syria is the main state component of the “resistance camp” and serves as a logistical hinterland for Hizbullah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Iran sees its unequivocal backing for Syria as a demonstration of its ability to stay loyal to its allies despite the regional turmoil. Read More »
Iran Signals Its Readiness for a Final Confrontation
Since the November 2011 IAEA report, senior figures of the Iranian regime have begun to use threatening language toward Israel and the U.S. Read More »
Iran Holds Major Air Defense Drill Amid Tensions with Turkey
On September 6-15, 2011, Iran held a four-stage major air defense drill. The exercise took place in the midst of escalating Iranian rhetoric towards Turkey as a result of Ankara’s decision to deploy a radar system in its territory that ... Read More »
Iran Sees New Opportunity for Regional Domination Despite Turkish Competition
In the Iranian lexicon, one does not encounter the concept of the “Arab Spring.” Instead, Iran has coined the term “Islamic awakening.” In contrast to the perceived economic enfeeblement of the Western economies headed by the U.S., which constitute the bases of support for the “Zionist regime,” Iran offers a substitute view of a new world order and an alternative, defiant Islamic agenda. Read More »
How Iran Is Helping Assad Suppress Syria’s “Arab Spring”
Since the beginning of the protest wave against Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, Iran has backed Damascus and assisted it in both the security and propaganda aspects of its violent repression of the protests. Tehran charges that Syria is the victim of an attempt by the West, led by the United States, to overthrow the Assad regime, under cover of the “Arab Spring.” Read More »
Does Iran’s Latest Military Exercise Signal a New Defense Doctrine?
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is in the midst of a large-scale missile exercise called “Great Prophet 6.” During the exercise, underground missile silos were disclosed, large numbers of surface-to-surface missiles (SSMs) of different ranges were fired, and a new radar system was revealed. Read More »
Latin America: Iran’s Springboard to America’s Backyard
Iran is exploiting its growing ties with Latin American countries for subversive and propaganda activity, terror and smuggling, and the development of long-range military capabilities. There have been reports that Iran is seeking to establish a missile base in Venezuela, at the doorstep of the great Satan. Read More »
Why Iran Is Pushing for a Shiite Victory in Bahrain
Vol. 11, No. 2 June 2, 2011 Bahrain is the locus of a titanic struggle between regional powers representing polar extremes of Islam (Shiite Iran vs. Sunni Saudi Arabia), and international powers’ economic and geo-strategic interests. Washington has been regarded as ... Read More »
Revolutionary Guards’ Influence Grows in Iran as Opposition Falters
On March 8, 2011, Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, 80, was elected Chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the body that will elect the next Supreme Leader of Iran. Read More »
Is Iran a Role Model for Arab Revolutions?
From Iran’s point of view, recent developments, especially in Egypt (long considered in the West as an anchor of stability and the initiator of a peace treaty with Israel), represent an improvement in Iran’s strategic status. Read More »
Iran: Preconditions and Provocations
Last month’s talks in Turkey offered Iran an opportunity to show how the center of power has shifted from Western dominance to Islamic hegemony under Tehran’s leadership. Iran’s behavior once again demonstrated the limits of dialogue and engagement with the regime. In their current scope, international economic sanctions may damage the Iranian economy and impede the nuclear program’s pace, but they do not suffice to restrain the Iranian leadership from attaining a nuclear bomb. Read More »
Iran Views the Egyptian Revolution as the Direct Continuation of Khomeini’s Revolution
Iran perceives the Egyptian revolution as the direct continuation of the Islamist revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini. In Tehran’s view, the events in Egypt validate Iran’s political doctrine, according to which “true Islam” is the only alternative to the decades-long American hegemony in the Middle East and the path toward independence and the resurrection of the Islamic nations. Read More »
Iran Changes the Balance of Power in Lebanon
Iran no longer hesitates to state publicly that its forward defense line now passes through “Lebanon and Palestine.” In practice, the Lebanese-Israeli border is in fact Israel’s border with Iran. Hizbullah is nourished by the growing strength and power of Iran and draws upon its successes. Both parties recognize that the fall of one also signifies the demise of the other. Read More »