Articles

Senior EFD Policy Advisor, Magnus Norell, discusses how an EU agreement to proscribe the Shi'a militant group Hezbollah could benefit both the EU and Lebanon....

An Iranian website associated with the country's Supreme Leader is attempting to recruit individuals to attack Israel....

Iran's relationship with China has become a strategic lifeline, as the country bears the weight of international sanctions....

In the run-up to 2013 Iran’s presidential elections, EFD Fellow, Wahied Wahdat-Hagh discusses the prospects for democracy in a country where Islamists keep maintaining control....

Unemployment and labour unrest are on the rise in Iran, but the government is ignoring the issue....

There are growing discussions over who should become Iran's next president....

Claims that radicalisation occurs through a lack of integration are unfounded says EFD Senior Policy Advisor....

Iranian politicians say President Ahmadinejad wants to postpone upcoming elections....

Valentina Colombo examines EU policy towards Egypt in light of recent sectarian violence. The EU’s High Representative, Catherine Ashton, was visiting Cairo when, during the funeral service for four Egyptian Christians who were recently killed, violence broke out once again between Coptic Christians and Muslims around St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, in the Abbasiyya quarter. Two people died and some 80 were wounded. Since the beginning...

Iranian cleric says reformist politicians Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi are not under house arrest....

The Iranian regime is using the help of Interpol to track Iranian actresses....

On the occasion of Iran's "national day of atomic technology", President Ahmadinejad warns that no state is capable of halting its nuclear programme. Are negotiations doomed to fail?...

During preparations for an attack on a synagogue, an Iranian al-Quds Brigade is arrested in Sofia....

EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour tells of how he turned his back on the allure of religious fundamentalism....

The tragic death of an 8 year-old girl sparks passing of Child Protection Law in the United Arab Emirates....

A leading Iranian newspaper claims the Jewish festival of Purim was a holocaust committed against the Persians....

In the below article, EFD Fellow, Wahied Wahdat-Hagh draws attention to Russian-Iranian relations, which could represent an alternative to the Iranian-American dialogue in solving the nuclear issue....

Today Iran enjoys the prospect of improved relations with Russia, yet hope for dialogue with the US looks set to remain bleak....

In the below article, EFD Senior Fellow, Bakary Sambe discusses how growing Turkish influence within West Africa is leaving regional powers such as Morocco looking further south for new opportunities....

Iranian scholar says that the West must accept Iran's nuclear programme if it wants to avoid war....

Harassment against Bahai schoolchildren is on the rise, as Iranian schoolteachers are given instructions from the state to pressure children to covert to Islam....

The historical narrative paints a clear picture that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and shows no signs of being deterred. EFD Fellow, Wahied Wahdat-Hag deals with this issue showing the failure of UN nuclear negotiations with Iran....

The Bahai religious minority has been victimised for more than 30 years by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Bahai International Community has published a new report entitled, “Violence with Impunity: Acts of Aggression Against Iran’s Bahai Community”....

In areas of Iran people are suffering from water scarcity. This recently sparked off a farmer rebellion in Ishafan, where insurgents burned down buses and attacked a police station to free arrested farmers....

Iranian cleric declares that only Ali Khamenei, leader of the Islamic revolution, can decide how much uranium Iran is going to enrich....

Few observers foresaw the Arab Spring, but it should not have surprised anyone that the Islamist movements became the main beneficiaries of the ensuing turmoil....

According to the Iranian regime, the group of 5 plus 1 must change its policy and not Iran....

For years, European countries pushed off the issue of adding Hezbollah to the European Union’s list of banned terrorist groups, citing the fact that the group had not carried out terrorist attacks on the continent since the 1980s. Sure, it raised funds across the continent hand-over-first, and provided logistical support to operatives carrying out attacks elsewhere, but that fell below the European threshold of bombs exploding in Europe. But in...

Being its activities designated as terrorist in most EU countries, "Hezbollah remains confident that the influence of Germany and France will see to it that the EU will not proscribe the group"....

EFD Fellow Wahied Wahdat-Hagh discusses how Iran's call for "economic jihad" points to serious concern among the Iranian authorities....

Various Islamist groups in Iran are engaged in power struggles but all of them are part of the establishment of the Islamist dictatorship. All other secular groups, from socialists and communists, to nationalist and royalist are either forbidden or heavily persecuted....

Hizbollah has turned out to be an important player in the international terror scene – which is why Europe finally has to take measures....

Iranian newspaper Kayhan praises a German newspaper Freitag for defending the views of the Iranian leader Ali Khamenei. The newspaper, owned by Jakob Augstein, recently published an article about the Iranian-US dialogue shining a positive light on Iran’s actions....

Bulgarian authorities have established a link between Hezbollah and the Burgas bus bombing. Former Iranian General Mohssen Rezai praises Lebanese Hezbollah as an organisation founded by Iranian revolutionaries....

Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, will attend a security conference in Munich 1st-3rd February 2013. While there, he will also speak at the German Council of Foreign Relations. According to him, Israel is the biggest problem in the Middle East, not terrorism....

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Magnus Norell reports on the security situation in northern Africa....