Amir Taheri

Barring a surprise which is still possible, on Sunday France may have its first elected ultra-right government led by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (formerly National Front). The only other time that that brand of politics emerged as government in France was in the 1940s under Marshal Petain and…

Today 68 million Iranians are supposed to elect a new president of the Islamic Republic from among six pre-approved candidates. We said “are supposed to” because it isn’t clear how many of those eligible to vote, including those in exile, have registered to do so. The early election caused by the…

It is still too early to decide how Emmanuel Macron might be remembered by history. But one distinction he is unlikely to win is that of “master of timing.” Yet his entourage claims that his decision to call an early general election was a master stroke in good timing. This is how the argument…

The results of last week’s European elections have prompted two reactions from political analysts in the old continent. One reaction could be described as the ostrich option, burying one’s head in the sand and praying that the storm will blow over. The other could be labeled apocalyptic pointing…

Barring the usual hitches in any plan related to the Israel-Palestine saga, what Washington is marketing as Biden’s peace proposal may soon well become reality. Presented in the classical style of a diplomatic plan the proposal suggests three phases for its implementation. In the first phase a six…

While conspiracy theorists offer endless versions of the theory that Islamic President Ibrahim Raisi’s sudden death in a helicopter crash was planned by Tehran’s “deep state” a more realistic approach might show that it has, in fact, created a problem that may not be so easy to solve. From …

Ibrahim Raisi who died in an air crash last Sunday was a perfect president-perfect as seen by the Islamic Republic’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei. Raisi understood the true nature of the Khomeinist system and supported it without arriere-pensee. He knew that the contradiction at the heart of a…

If you visit Paris these days, you may run into solemn-looking youths distributing a tract that’s says: “Palestine is fighting for all of us!” or tagging this message on the walls: “Stop Genocide in Palestine!” They introduce themselves as university students, young scholars who are supposedly…

To those of us old enough to remember the good (or bad) old days of student revolt in Western universities in the 1960s, current disturbances in a number of European and American universities appear as a bad remake of a controversial original. The current disturbances are on a much smaller scale. …

As the first rumblings of war are heard from Europe the editor of a major American newspaper decides to send a reporter to the old continent to see what is going on. He wants “our best and brightest” for the job and finds it in John Jones arousing the jealousy of older and more experienced…