Amir Taheri

Over the past half a century what is called “Iranology” has developed into a global industry with dozens of think-tanks, institutes, faculties and pressure groups trying to understand and explain what is going on in the Iran created by Khomeini in 1979. Patterned on Kremlinology, a bustling…

With the campaign for the election of the next European Parliament heating up it is becoming clear that the union of 27 democracies that together form the largest economic bloc in the world is not in good shape. To be sure, the European Union isn’t quite on life-support as its arch-foe Vladimir…

“Will this time be different?” This is the question that haunts Tehran political circles as more body bags are flown in from Damascus. The body bags contain the mortal remains of 13 Iranian diplomatic and military officers including two senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Grad Corps…

It took Vladimir Putin days before he conceded that the terror attack on a concert hall in Crocus near Moscow was the work of ISIS operatives from Central Asia. Yet, he continued to fly his earlier kite about Ukraine being responsible. The claim in the sense the Russian leader intends it is too…

Although the tragic narrative that started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel isn’t yet completed, do-gooders and virtue-signalers are rushing to write their postscripts. British and European Union leaders say the time has come to formally accept the creation of a Palestinian state. UN…

Even a year ago some Russia-watchers believed that President Vladimir Putin might end his war on Ukraine with something like a victory in time before what could be his last re-election campaign. However, now as Russians go to the polls no victory is even remotely in sight. Putin is almost certain…

In the recent summit in Paris of European Union leaders on Ukraine, there was an elephant in the room: The US Republican Party and its current mahout Donald J. Trump. According to those who were able to peep into the session much of the discussion was about what the US will or won’t do in case the…

Iranians are expected to go to the polls today in what many analysts believe is the weirdest general elections in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic. In fact, what is on offer is a dual exercise. One is to choose the members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, a 290-seats unicameral…

Two years already! And how much longer? This is what comes to mind as the war in Ukraine enters its third year with no prospect of an end in sight. Because war is a matter of here-and-now one shouldn’t expect those who fight it to think of its aftermath. Belligerents who do so often end up…

In the past few weeks European farmers have taken to the streets of their capitals to advertise a rebellious mood that few expected to see. Having enjoyed a comfortable life for decades, thanks to subsidies from their respective governments and the European Union’s Common agricultural Policy …