The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently declared, “Israel is trapping Iran and America.� If that is true, perhaps the U.S. and Iran should cooperate to extricate themselves from that trap. In the wake of the most recent exchange of fire between Israel and Iran, the region is on the cusp of more violence and instability, but... Read More

Following the sudden death of Iran’s president, Ibrahim Raisi, the reformist politician Masoud Pezeshkian won the snap election to replace the hard-liner, a possible successor to supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Pezeshkian campaigned on a program of change, but not changing the system. He supports negotiating a nuclear deal with the U.S. and regularly criticized Iran’s... Read More

Uzbekistan held a snap election for president on 9 July 2023, and the voters went to the polls and returned the incumbent, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, to the job with 87.05 % vote (on an 80.12% turnout). The vote gives Mirziyoyev, in office since 2016, a seven-year term. The recently approved constitution lengthened presidential terms from 5... Read More