Iran

Over the past month, tensions have escalated as Iran and the US move closer to military conflict. Here is what you should know about the burgeoning crisis and the reason for the increased animosity between the two nations.

Sanctions and corruption have stunted Iran’s economic growth, and reforms will be difficult because of entrenched interests. This gives American policymakers a crucial diplomatic tool.

Since the 1980s, the MCIG has played a leading role in suppressing political and cultural speech that contradicts Tehran’s revolutionary creed. But while the Obama administration sanctioned the ministry in 2012 for engaging in censorship, its current leadership has escaped Washington’s attention. By sanctioning the ministry’s current head, Abbas Salehi, Washington can send the mullahs a message that their ideologically driven repression will carry a price.

Russia and Iran are coordinating to prop up Assad in Syria but this could bring Iran one step closer to war with Israel.

Three years after Obama finalized the Iran deal, President Trump withdrew the US, and today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid out a new and very ambitious path forward.

The core problem with the Iran deal is not in its details, but rather in the nature of Iran.

Trump could have chosen the deal. He could have chosen retrenchment. But he could not choose both.

Surrounded by strategic threats and faced with an increasingly aggressive Iran, the security situation for both Israel and Christian communities in the Middle East has changed in an unpredictable and dangerous way.

For now, the border between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights remains the most important border in the Middle East—a veritable dam holding back the tidal wave of Iranian ambition.