Ephraim Kam
A key foreign affairs issue for the Trump administration will be its policy on Iran, as was the case also for the Obama administration. But we have no idea what approach it will take, an uncertainty amplified by the fact that Trump has no experience whatsoever in foreign policy, and no idea whose input he will accept in shaping it. It’s not as if we have no information about his attitude – during the election campaign, Trump made his intention on Iran very clear – but, as with other topics, it is unclear how he will act when once he is forced to translate his intentions into action and realizes that reality is far more complicated than he imagined.

Seyyed Mohammad Eslami
“Painful to be an American right now.” This is a sentence by Francis Fukuyama, author of the famous book “The End of History and the Last Man”. He tweeted this sentence after a war of words between President Donald Trump and the Australian prime minister.

Mahmoud Omidsalar
The group that is driven to despair by Trumps threats is the small minority of intellectuals in and out of Iran.  They are concerned that a fight between Iran and the U.S. can only end in Iran’s defeat and destruction.  This view, it seems to me, is born of their vantage point. That is, if they get off of their knees and look carefully, they might be able to see a better and broader vista.

Seyed Hossein Mousavian
There has long been much handwringing in Washington over Iran’s ballistic missiles. They are portrayed as threatening to regional security and developed with the aim of one day arming with nuclear warheads. This is as missiles form an integral part of Iran’s defensive military posture, which is fundamentally geared towards deterring attack. Indeed, when it comes to conventional military power, the regional balance is staggeringly stacked against Iran, with Saudi Arabia outspending Iran 5-to-1 on its military and even the UAE, with a native Emirati population of less than 2 million, spending 50 percent more than Iran. The United States, with its massive military presence in the region, spends nearly 70 times more than Iran. 

Hamidreza Azizi
There are serious doubts over the exact route of the US domestic and foreign policies under Donald Trump due to his controversial positions on various issues. In the meantime, one of the important issues that attracted the attention of observers and analysts even before the election of Trump and during the election campaign was his approach toward Russia and the possible policy of the US new administration toward the Kremlin. 

Reza Nasri
According to news reports, the Trump administration is weighing the option of designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). In parallel, Congress also seems to be taking steps in that direction. Some of the most hawkish and ideological elements of the American foreign-policy establishment, as well as hardcore opponent of the nuclear agreement such as United Against Nuclear Iran and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, have long pursued this designation for the IRGC. Radical Iranian opposition groups like the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a formerly “designated” terrorist group itself, have also fiercely lobbied to this end.

Finian Cunningham
The connection of an anti-Iran exile group to senior members in the Trump administration may explain why the US president has taken such a hostile line towards the Islamic Republic, declaring it a «number one state sponsor of terrorism» and slapping new sanctions on Tehran.

Javad Heirannia
Late last year in Manama, Bahrain, British Prime Minister Theresa May assured Persian Gulf oil monarchies that the United Kingdom’s anti-Iran posture would remain unchanged under her leadership.

Adnan Tabatabai
Despite their escalating rhetoric, neither Iran nor the United States has the incentive nor the ability to take the new cycle of tension to a military confrontation.

Dana Abizaid
The “truths” the US peddles should be questioned since they are derived from the fantasy that Iran is expansionist, the US acts rationally, and the Islamic Republic is evil.