Since the 1979 storming of the embassy and seizure of American diplomats in Tehran, the United States has imposed wave after wave of sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over time, the sanctions have grown from Executive orders aimed at Iranian support for terrorism into a far more comprehensive congressional and international regime that focuses on Iran’s nuclear program. As negotiations over this program continue, legal analysis of non-proliferation agreements, sanctions law and the respective foreign policy powers of Congress and the President have become inextricably linked to the diplomatic initiative with the Islamic Republic.
Latest in Iran
The European Parliament recently voted to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. The EU’s policy chief insists that such a move is not possible until a European court has taken judicial action against the IRGC. This is not the case.
In our assessment, targeted sanctions on Iran are more likely to have an impact than is designating the IRGC as a terrorist entity.
How does the alleged plot to kill John Bolton fit within the broader context of Iranian foreign operations?
The failed assassinaton plot against the former U.S. national security adviser has demonstrated the need for plans to deter future attempts on the lives of senior officials while avoiding a spiral of retaliation with Iran.
Shahram Poursafi, the charged individual, allegedly tried to pay several people in the United States $300,000 each to murder Bolton in Washington, D.C. or Maryland.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over the mutual return of the two countries to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action are currently deadlocked. This post provides an overview of U.S. sanctions against Iran and explains those sanctions currently at issue in stalled talks.
The memo provides the legal rationale behind the controversial January 2, 2020, drone strike that killed Major General Qassem Soleimani of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and several leaders of the militia Kata’ib Hezbollah while in Baghdad, Iraq.
The terrorist attack on the Khobar Towers was the bloodiest attack on America between the Beirut Marine barracks disaster in 1983 and September 11, 2001. Its legacy still haunts Washington’s relations with Iran. I watched the drama up close.
In its efforts to enforce economic sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, the United States is straining the boundaries of traditionally accepted state behavior in some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. It is walking a tightrope.
To the extent that Iran targets U.S. audiences in sustained disinformation campaigns, it still typically aims to broadly promote Iranian interests rather than attempting to induce a specific result in American domestic affairs.