Amir Taheri

Barring a last-minute surprise, and our subject has always been full of surprises, Iran and the United States are expected to resume their interrupted talks in Muscat today amid contradicting speculations about a possible outcome. Both Tehran and Washington pretend that the long weeks during…

National sovereignty is a phrase that before President Donald Trump brought it into question with headline-grabbing shenanigans on Venezuela, Iran and Greenland among other places was seldom heard outside political science classrooms. Now, however, it is at the center of debates about…

“Tell me what is your nightmare and I will tell you who you are!” The quip attributed to Freud may be apocryphal, but I think it contains a grain of truth. I don’t know what your nightmare is, but I have known mine since I bought my first newspaper in Ahvaz as a child. It goes like this: I am up…

Today marks the first anniversary of Donald J Trump’s return to the White House, and you may or may not want to celebrate. What you can’t do is deny that it has been an exciting year. The first thing worth noting is that the year in question was different from the first year in Trump’s first…

"Illegal" was the word most used by governments and commentators across the globe to describe the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Moro last weekend by a US Delta Force squad There is, however, no consensus. Some, including many leftist politicians in Europe call it “an act of…

For decades most “Iranologists” regarded one theory as “certain” in Iranian politics: Three segments of society would never rebel against the system created by Khomeini in 1979. The three were the bazaaris, the clergy and university students seduced by leftist ideas in vogue across the globe at…

In some of the ancient civilizations each year was designated with a label rather than a number. For example, there was a Year of the Locust, a Year of the Flood, or a Year of Golden Harvest. Following that tradition, what label do you think would suit 2025? One suggestion is: the Year of…

The latest haggling over ending the war in Ukraine appears to be focused on three elements two of which could be labelled “promissory” and one “instant delivery." The instant delivery bit concerns an agreement to let Russia keep the chunk of Donbas it has conquered. That is what US President…

How does the US see its role in global politics at least for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s tenure at the White House? That is the question that following a procedure followed by all presidents since the 1970s the just published National Security Strategy wishes to address. The new…

Trump to host two African leaders! That was a footnote to world news last week still dominated by efforts to stop the Ukraine war. However, to those who follow African affairs the triangular meeting at the White House looked like a miracle. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his…