Donald Trump has learned that the Middle East is a complex and dangerous place where bellicose threats on Twitter count for little.
The US president has been talking up the threat of war on Iran since he came to office, prompted no doubt by Israel and Saudi Arabia, which have long feared the growing Iranian influence in an era of declining American power in the region.
Forty years ago protests in Iran rolled over into a revolution. John Rose tells a tale of huge potential brutally suppressed.
The Iranian Revolution of February 1979 was one of the most startling events of the 20th century. This is true not just because of the almost total participation of the entire population in the active overthrow of the Shah, the dictatorial self-proclaimed monarch, but also because of the determination of the new regime to install what it described as an “Islamic Republic”.
President Donald Trump is ratcheting up the pressure against Iran, as well as elsewhere. Indeed, his election campaign was fought partly on the “bad deal” that was struck over Iran and nuclear weapons. Now he has pulled out of the deal and is putting pressure on others to do the same. In order to understand the current situation we should revisit the history of meddling by the US.
Bibi Netanyahu is not so popular in the White House following his spat with US president Barack Obama over Iran’s alleged race to develop nuclear weapons. The Israeli leader is accusing Obama of “giving up” because he is pursuing talks with Iran over its nuclear programme.
Director Mohammad Rasoulof, released 12 September
Dissident Iranian Mohammad Rasoulof’s Manuscripts Don’t Burn is a brave and brutal depiction of corruption, violence and state censorship in today’s Iran. He defied a 20-year work ban to make this chilling political thriller which he has been unable to officially show in Iran. It is more than an exposure of state repression – it’s personal.
Political and social changes are reflected in the work of a new wave of young Iranian artists. We look at the art and its relationship to the country's turbulent history.
As was reported in Socialist Review's May issue, Somerset House hosted The Burnt Generation, an exhibition of contemporary Iranian photography. This exhibition is the work of nine young women and men. The subjects of their art are all caught in the web of the political history of Iran.
The deal between the so-called P5+1 (the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) and Iran represents a recalibration of power relations in the Middle East.
On the surface the deal, which temporarily eases some of the sanctions on Iran in return for a suspension of is nuclear programme, is a dramatic breakthrough. Beneath it lay the tectonic shifts in a region that was once marked by military standoff and quiescent populations.
During the culmination of the American presidential debates the world bore witness to a bizarre, but revealing, foreign policy battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Who would befriend Israel more? Who would better defeat "the terrorists"? Who would impose the most crippling sanctions on Iran? Writing in the Guardian the following day, Gary Younge perceptibly broke it to the international community that, "Obama's just not that into you".
Calls for intervention in Iran seem to echo those in the lead up to the attack on Iraq in 2003. Ali Alizadeh asks whether history is about to replay itself and what is the state of resistance inside Iran today?
Since last September the US, its European allies and Israel have been escalating tensions with Iran over its nuclear programme. They have repeatedly threatened Iran with military action. Both the US and Britain have provocatively stationed navy ships near Iran's borders in the Persian Gulf.
Sarah Ensor and Mark L Thomas spoke to Tariq Ali who gives his take on the revolutions and rebellions in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria, the threat of war with Iran and US imperialism after Iraq
What is the balance sheet on Iraq for US imperialism? How far has US dominance been damaged?
