Vatanka Reports
News and Analysis on the Greater Middle East 
 

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoys keeps visiting Iran. Igor Levitin, Putin’s advisor, has visited Tehran twice in 2023, totaling five visits in the last six months.

More than a year on from the beginning of the Ukraine war in February 2022, there is no more business as usual for Russia-Iran relations. While bilateral ties are still characterized by an intense focus on security and defense, the two sides are opening multiple new areas of cooperation as well.

The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq presented policymakers in Tehran with the need to make a crucial decision.

Stirring sectarian tensions in the country’s poorest province is a dangerous game.

The region is fast becoming a new geopolitical tinderbox, but both countries have good reasons to rebuild ties

Since the Biden Administration came to office, Washington has been full of reports that the United States and its Gulf allies are drifting apart.

These demonstrations represent perhaps the most sustained domestic challenge to the clerical leadership since 1979, despite efforts by authorities to quell the unrest through mass arrests, beatings and killings, and internet and social media cuts.

Albania, a small Muslim-majority country in Southeastern Europe, has unexpectedly emerged as a stalwart foe of the Islamic Republic.

What the Hijab Protests Mean for Iran’s Clerical Class

Ali Khamenei won’t give up power for anyone—not even his president.

During his most recent visit to Tehran, on July 19, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, vowed closer economic cooperation.

The Iranian authorities anticipate that President Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East is aimed at one top priority: to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to its partners in the region.