Elizabeth MacBride
Kamran Elahian has seen some of this before. The Iranian-American entrepreneur and global philanthropist is watching the chaos around the new president’s tougher stance toward Iran, including new sanctions and a temporary ban on travel by Iranians to the United States.

Piia Mustamäki
For most western people Iran invokes images of violence. Of religious fanaticism, of anger against westerners, of a ruthless, hard-line government ready to punish the slightest digression, of travelers arrested and thrown in jail. But then there are the reports from people who have actually traveled to Iran, from Anthony Bourdain to amateur travel bloggers, and without fail they all mention how friendly and hospitable the people were and how welcomed and safe they felt, Americans included. 

Peter Korzun
A ballistic missile test was carried out by Iran on January 29 from a site near Semnan, east of Tehran. The medium-range ballistic missile reportedly exploded after 1,010 km. The fact was confirmed on February 1 by the country’s defense chief. Paragraph 3 of Annex B of UN Security Council’s Resolution 2231 (2015) calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.

Paul R. Pillar
One of the most direct indications of Donald Trump’s failure, or refusal, to understand issues involving Iran is his tweeted declaration this week that the Iranians “should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!”

Hossein Valeh
Israel is making attempts to push President Donald Trump’s administration to trigger a war against Iran in the Middle East.

Greg Thielmann
Iran’s January 29 flight test of a medium-range ballistic missile helped prompt an ominous if ambiguous warning by U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn on February 1: “As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.” Since it is facing so many other international crises, it is curious that the new administration gives such a prominent place to Iranian missile testing, which poses no existential threat to the United States or its allies and is not prohibited by the Iran nuclear deal or any other widely accepted rules of international behavior.

Abdolreza Faraji-Rad
Relations between Iran and France have gone through vicissitudes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.France’s support for the regime of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hossein (during the war between Iran and Iraq in 1980-88) and the presence of MKO terrorists in France have overshadowed bilateral ties.

Dominic Dudley
The Iranian government is to stop using the US dollar in its official statements, according to a report in the local English-language daily the Financial Tribune.

Eldar Mamedov
There is growing uncertainty around the fate of the nuclear deal with Iran and, more broadly, intentions of the Trump administration regarding that country. Meanwhile, the world, including the American supporters of the agreement—also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)— increasingly looks to Europe to safeguard it. The stakes could not be higher. Not only is the JCPOA a singular achievement of multilateral diplomacy and non-proliferation, but it also opens the way to re-engage with a key country at the intersection of the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, a huge region beset by radicalism, sectarianism, and terrorism.

Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
US President Donald Trump's executive order that imposes a temporary ban on US entry for nationals of several Muslim countries including Iran and Iraq is an initial exercise in Islamophobia/Iranophobia, which is bound to expand to other areas in the future.