Mehdi Khalaji's Blog

Report: How Khamenei Makes Decisions

      Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accumulated formidable authority within Iran’s political system since he became supreme leader nearly 25 years ago, mainly through transforming the Revolutionary Guard Corps into a key political and economic player. But even Khamenei has had to “devise sophisticated…

Part I: Iran-Syria Religious Ties

Mehdi Khalaji            Iran and Syria are unlikely bedfellows. Iran has been an Islamic republic—and the world’s only modern theocracy—since the 1979 revolution. Syria has been a rigidly secular and socialist country since Hafez Assad took over in 1970. Ethnically, Iran is predominantly Persian,…

Tehran’s Views on U.S. Politics, Nuclear Talks

Mehdi Khaliji   Iran’s ruling regime pays close attention to American politics in its own calculations about how to negotiate with Washington—and how to game the new diplomatic effort. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his inner circle, for example, believe that President Barack Obama…

Assessing Iran’s Parliamentary Election

Mehdi Khalaji  Who were the winners and losers in this election?   The most important result of this election was the rise of a new generation of hardliners. It did not have a serious presence in parliament before the election. The new hardline faction is led by Ayatollah…

Iran on Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

Mehdi Khalaji For decades, the Muslim Brotherhood was the largest organized opposition party in Egypt. It is Islamist. What are its similarities and differences with Iran’s Islamic revolution?The current revolt in Iran is against Islamism, but the recent uprising in Egypt is neither Islamist…

Leader reasserts authority during Qom trip

Mehdi Khalaji       Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s fourth and longest official visit to Qom since he became supreme leader 21 years ago can be seen as a sign of his self-confidence in ending the unrest following the disputed 2009 presidential election. Khamenei reasserted his authority during a…