Iranian Politics

The outcome of Lebanon’s parliamentary elections revealed that the country’s citizens are largely disillusioned and apathetic, given the low voter turnout, and an active minority is angry. At 41% turnout, this suggests the majority of the Lebanese people believed the outcome of the election would be irrelevant, and that whatever the composition of the parliament, it will not be able to extricate Lebanon from its current crises.

On Sunday, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad made a surprise visit to Iran—his first trip there since February 2019. Much has changed since that last jaunt to see his patrons.

Last Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced that Mohammad Kazem Al-e Sadeq will become the next Iranian ambassador to Iraq.

On August 5, Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in as the president of the Islamic Republic on the heels of major protests, and ongoing strikes in the strategic energy sector. Beginning in June, thousands of workers in the energy sector including petrochemical plants went on strike to protest late payment, low wages, and poor working and living conditions.

As predicted, Ebrahim Raisi is the incoming president of the Islamic Republic. There are a few things we learned from the election that particularly stand out.

On June 18, 2021, Iran will hold a presidential election that will be anything but free and fair. This has been the case in all prior elections, as the Islamic Republic is a republic in name only. Iranian elections exist to benefit the ruling regime, which vests final decision making powers on all affairs of state in the hands of an authoritarian Supreme Leader, by creating an approved channel for the citizenry to experience the trappings of democratic participation and choice that does not threaten its grip on authority.

In January 2020, UANI profiled Saeed Mohammad, head of the IRGC’s Khatam-al Anbia Construction HQ (“KAA”).  Despite this prominent role, he has managed to evade U.S. scrutiny and sanctions and remained a relative ‘unknown’ - until now. Having just quit the KAA, Mohammad is emerging from the shadows with a potential Presidential run in June.

January 3, 2021 will mark the one year anniversary of the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike that targeted his convoy shortly after he landed at Baghdad’s International Airport. The attack also killed Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, a.k.a.

The Trump Administration’s maximum pressure campaign has placed the Iranian regime, and its economy under significant stress. With just over a month left in office, the Trump Administration can continue to build pressure and leverage by taking the following steps:

With the U.S. presidential election approaching, the Trump administration has increased the pace of sanctions designations on Iran. While such penalties are aimed to build economic leverage against Tehran, a pattern has emerged in the recent U.S. actions. The United States is seeking to blur the distinction between Iran’s armed and elected states to document publicly that they are two sides of the same terror coin.