Iran Insights

Assertions by US President Donald Trump that Iran’s leadership is divided, and Tehran’s increasingly coordinated effort to deny it, have thrust the issue of unity to the center of the standoff between the two countries.

Iran-UAE ties have unraveled over the past two months, beginning with Iranian airstrikes on Emirati targets during the US-led war and escalating into a crisis that now threatens one of Tehran’s most vital trade and financial channels.

As debate over a ceasefire and renewed talks with the United States intensifies, the absence of a clear supreme arbiter in Tehran appears to be giving Iran’s hardliners more room to shape the narrative and to hinder any eventual agreement.

Divisions within Iran’s leadership prevented a negotiating team from traveling to Islamabad for talks with the US, Iran International has learned.

Iran’s state broadcaster has sparked ridicule after claiming that 87% of Iranians support continuing the war with the United States, in a curious turn from early in the conflict where pro-war sentiments of an alienated populace was branded treachery.

As uncertainty clouds the next round of Iran-US talks, the economic pain of the war is mounting inside Iran and beyond, increasing pressure on both sides to find a way out.

Iran’s economy is likely to buckle faster than the United States or the global economy under the combined pressure of war, sanctions, a US blockade and Tehran’s disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, experts said at Iran International’s townhall in Washington DC.

Mounting opposition to negotiations with Washington in Tehran is casting doubt over whether Iran will proceed with a new round of talks with the United States in Islamabad as the ceasefire deadline approaches.

Tehran’s commentariat is warning that the most troubling outcome of the current negotiations with Washington may be neither war nor peace, but a prolonged “no deal–no war” limbo.

The idea of an “Iranian Gorbachev” has surfaced before in the Islamic Republic, but this time the conditions may be different.

Apparent divisions over negotiations with the United States may have strengthened the most confrontational elements within Iran’s political landscape and facilitated the rise of new hardline actors.

Pink missiles, pink drones and pink firearms. Women with uncovered hair—braids, ponytails, short bobs—stood beside weapons, waved flags and smiled for cameras in scenes broadcast across Iranian media. Tehran appears willing to try almost anything to preserve power.

Iran’s lead negotiator and parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf defended indirect talks with the United States in a televised interview Saturday after hardline critics accused him of “betrayal” and even hinted at a “coup” over the negotiations in Islamabad.

One hundred days after one of the deadliest crackdowns in modern history, Iran remains suspended between grief and uncertainty, with a fractured public mood as some see justice in recent blows to the regime, while others feel left behind with it still in place.

The screening of a concert video by a Lebanese female singer at a pro-government rally in Iran has drawn unusual attention for appearing to cross two of the Islamic Republic’s long-standing cultural taboos: women’s solo singing and compulsory hijab.

Messages from Iran International viewers inside the country reveal a society grappling with a mix of hope, anger and deep uncertainty as a fragile ceasefire with the United States persists.

Hardline voices in Tehran are escalating rhetoric around the Strait of Hormuz, calling for transit fees on ships even as a US blockade challenges Iran’s control over the strategic waterway.

Fundraising drives across Indian-administered Kashmir have collected nearly $2 million for Iran following the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, highlighting the depth of religious and ideological ties between the region’s Shia community and the Islamic Republic.