Jalil Bayat
Two years have passed since the unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran. Today, evidence suggests this has resulted in increased tensions and mistrust between the two countries and weakened diplomacy and multilateralism in the international system.

On 22 April 2020 Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) successfully launched a small satellite – the Noor-1 (Farsi for ‘Light’) – on a previously unseen satellite launch vehicle called the Qased. Over the course of this week SpaceWatch.Global is running a series of perspectives on the strategic, political, and geopolitical implications of the launch for Iran, the Middle East region, Europe, and the United States. Today’s perspectives come courtesy of Dr. Seyed Hossein Mousavian of Princeton University in the United States.

Dianne Feinstein
While Americans are rightly focused on handling the coronavirus at home, the government must also remain vigilant to threats around the world. Yet the Donald Trump administration’s approach to Iran, in particular, increasingly lacks any clear policy or overarching strategy.

M.A. Saki
Seyed Yaser Ziaee, an associate professor of international law from the University of Qom, says it is not possible for the United States to invoke snapback sanctions against Iran based on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which it abandoned in May 2018.

Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif has written a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to elaborate on the US violations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, demanding the international body to safeguard its reputation.

Gareth Porter
An investigation of supposed Iranian nuclear documents presented in a dramatically staged Netanyahu press conference indicates they were an Israeli fabrication designed to trigger US military conflict with Iran.

A new ancient region with about 10,000 historical stone carvings has been discovered in the Iranian city of Meshkinshahr in Ardabil province, northwest of the country.