Articles

Later this month, the European Union’s Council of Ministers will decide whether to sign Ukraine’s European Union Association Agreement at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, ten days later. If the European Union agrees to offer the Ukraine formal association, it will eliminate most barriers to trade between Ukraine and the European Union, and boost Ukraine’s economy.  More importantly, the agreement would allow Ukraine to take a big...

In the event of a western military strike against Syria, Iran has threatened to launch rocket attacks against Israel....

Members of Iran's Baha'i community continue to face systematic persecution at the hands of the Iranian regime. In the Islamist dictatorship, the state clergy is one of the main bodies responsible for incendiary conduct and murder. Once again, a Baha'i has been assassinated in Iran. Before the murder, a cleric had rallied against the Baha'i, and soon afterwards the fanatical mob responded. Seemingly unremarkably, Ataollah Rezwani was killed. The...

Iranian news media has recently turned its attention to the role of Jewish organisations and the issue of US foreign policy....

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Lorenzo Vidino answers questions on the future of the MENA region for the Zurich-based think tank ISN. Vidino notes that the result of the Arab Spring has been to give citizens the idea that they can shape their countries' destinies. However the Arab world still has to contend with serious problems such as economic stagnation and a youth bulge that is causing social instability. You can read the article at ISN her...

Magnus Norell on the international ramifications of the chemical attack launched by the Syrian regime against civilians in the suburbs of Damascus....

Iranian international relations expert Kayhan Barzegar lays the framework for the nature of US-Iranian dialogue....

Iran's newly appointed Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan allegedly played a chief role in the formation of Hezbollah in Lebanon....

Sweden's daily newspaper Göteborgs-Posten features a report written by EFD Senior Policy Advisor Magnus Norell on the activities of the Lebanese-militant group Hezbollah within Europe. In July the EU blacklisted Hezbollah's military wing, yet Norell cites that it is not possible to separate its political activities from its military wing and the EU's decision will not prevent the group from carrying out activities in Europe such as organised c...

President Hassan Rohani has said he wants to end Iran's isolation, yet his actions suggest that he is following the path of his predecessor....

In an interview on Iranian state television before the election, Hassan Rohani admitted that Iran has never attempted to halt its nuclear programme....

Sweden's daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet features an op-ed on the problem of terrorist recruitment in Sweden. It is estimated that at least seven men from the city of Gothenburg have been killed in the Syrian conflict and there are fears that mosques in the city are encouraging young men to travel to the Middle East. The Swedes who head to Syria often join the most radical rebel groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and there are fears that once th...

EFD Senior Fellow discusses what we can expect from Iran's newly elected President Hassan Rohani....

Iran's President Hassan Rohani has accused Israel of being a wound in the body of the Islamic world....

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has issued an extensive list of fatwas ordering people to avoid contact with the Bahai....

Al-Qods day in Iran has become symbolic of the regime's desire to target Israel....

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Magnus Norell writing in Sweden's daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet believes that the Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah is a "united organisation" and it is not possible for the European Union to separate its political wing from its military wing....

EFD Senior fellow discusses how Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism is still widespread in Iran's media....

EFD Senior Fellow Wahied Wahdat-Hagh reveals how Iran's new President has little respect for democracy. (German)...

In 2005 Iran's future president Hasan Rohani gave a speech in which he outlined Iran's strategy for dealing with the West regarding its nuclear programme....

President Hassan Rohani says he wants to have a dialogue with the USA, but under the condition that it accepts Iran's right to have a nuclear programme....

EFD Senior Fellow discusses Iran's elections, its minorities and Hezbollah's activities in Europe....

EFD Fellow Anna Borshchevskaya discusses how the Middle East will shape discussions at the G-8 Summit....

While it is not clear who will win Iran's presidential election, the likely loser will be Iranian civil society....

By referring to her previous article Syria’s Opportunistic Use of Islam, EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo discusses the increasing centrality of Islam in Syrian regime’s discourse....

Senior Iranian Military Advisor discusses the role of Iran in the Mediterranean region....

In other countries there are pre-election promises. In Iran there is new, barbaric legislation....

EFD Fellow Anna Borshchevskaya writes about Armenia's political future in Turkish Policy Quarterly....

Argentinian General Prosecutor Alberto Nisman presented a 500-page dossier providing evidence of the Iranian regime’s efforts at ‘infiltrating’ several South American countries ‘ New evidence of Iran's destabilising influence across South America By Albany Tribune -- (May 31, 2013) By Roberta Bonazzi EFD commends the work of Argentinian General Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who this week presented a 500-page dossier, providing ev...

Iran's presidential candidate Saeed Jalili has not concealed his desire to confront Israel....

Over the past eight years President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become one of the world's most talked-about leaders for his controversial statements and uncompromising views....

Iran's presidential elections are testing the country's power structures and many suspect that it is on its way to becoming a totalitarian state....

In Germany a Shi'a Islamic website has emerged which acts to recruit Hezbollah sympathisers. This article is only available in German. Das Shia-Forum.de tritt als eine religiöse Vereinigung auf und verbreitet alle religiösen und politischen Mythen der totalitären Herrscher im Iran in deutscher Sprache. Sie sind Anhänger von Ayatollah Khomeini, Gründer der islamistischen Diktatur im Iran. Sie gehorchen dem heutigen Revolutionsführer A...

Will the West install a political framework which secures peace and development in Syria, or will its people continue to suffer, much to the benefit of Iran's paranoid leadership?...

The Iranian government continues to carry out human rights violations on the basis of religious affiliation....