Iran Deal

An Iranian man walks past an anti-US and anti-Israel banner hanging on a building in Palestine Square in Tehran on Jan. 27, 2026.

Analysis

From 'help is on the way' to nuclear talks, Iranians wary of Trump's shift

After Trump repeatedly pledged to hold Tehran accountable for its protest crackdown, many Iranians are still waiting for him to make good on his promises.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, attends a meeting with the diplomatic adviser to the French president, in the Iranian capital Tehran, on July 10, 2019.

Iran names Ali Shamkhani head of Defense Council: What to know

Ali Shamkhani, a longtime security official, recently dismissed the idea of sending enriched uranium abroad and expressed a degree of hope about the upcoming negotiations with the US.

(L-R) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Chinese Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu, and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi hold a press conference after their meeting in Beijing on March 14, 2025.

Iran dispatches senior official to China amid talks push with US

Ahead of his trip to Beijing, Kazem Gharibabadi met with the Russian ambassador to Iran on Tuesday.

Rubio

Rubio says talks with Iran should address missiles, proxies

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Al-Monitor the venue and format of the upcoming talks are “still being worked through.”

Latest News

Analysis

Despite US assurances, Israel fears being sidelined in partial Iran deal

Steve Witkoff Jared Kushner

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

US-Iran talks uncertain as Tehran pushes to sideline regional countries

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gives a statement at the Ritz Hotel as he meets Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, on Jan. 30, 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Analysis

US, Iran weigh de-escalation declaration as first step of talks

Motorists drive past as firefighters battle a fire that broke out in Jannat Bazaar, west of Tehran on Feb. 3, 2026.

A correspondent in Iran

By A correspondent in Iran

In Iran, reporting on politics

Witkoff meets Netanyahu as Israel warns against potential Iran deal

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff arrives for a press conference with the US president and Israel's prime minister in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 4, 2025.

Retired Israeli general and Executive Director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) Amos Yadlin attends a session at the Manama Dialogue security conference in the Bahraini capital on December 5, 2020. (Photo by Mazen Mahdi / AFP) (Photo by MAZEN MAHDI/AFP via Getty Images)

Interview

Amos Yadlin: Israel's goal to enable Trump to reach better Iran deal than 2015

In an interview with Al-Monitor, former head of the Israeli military intelligence directorate Amos Yadlin talks about the extent of the damage Israel has thus far inflicted on Iran and the strategic goals of the war.

Amos Yadlin

Amos Yadlin

Former head of Israeli military intelligence

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (C) gives a statement during his visit to the mausoleum of slain Lebanese Hezbollah's Leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in September 2024, in Beirut's southern suburbs on June 3, 2025.

EU FMs hold talks with Iran's Araghchi as US mulls strike: What to know

The meeting in Geneva follows President Donald Trump saying on Thursday that he will decide within two weeks whether to involve the United States directly in the Israel-Iran conflict.

A poster of slain Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Hossein Salami, killed following Israeli strikes on targets in Iran, is set up at a Tehran square on June 16, 2025.

US targets Iran’s defense industry with sanctions as Trump weighs strikes

The Treasury Department also announced sanctions targeting the illicit oil trade of the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

A plume of heavy smoke and fire rise over an oil refinery in southern Tehran, after it was hit in an overnight Israeli strike, on June 15, 2025.

Oil prices stabilize after Trump hints at diplomatic off-ramp with Iran

European diplomats are pushing for eleventh-hour diplomacy with Iranian counterparts in Geneva on Friday, in a bid to reach a nuclear deal.

Smoke rises from locations targeted in Tehran amid the third day of Israel's waves of strikes against Iran, on Sunday, June 15, 2025.

Analysis

As Netanyahu pushes Trump to join Iran war, will Israel strike Fordow alone?

Israel needs the United States to join its attack on Iran in order to destroy the nuclear facility at Fordow, but it's also preparing contingency plans.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

ISRAEL-IRAN-CONFLICT Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba, after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran on June 19, 2025. Israel's defence minister warned that Iran's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on June 19, spiking tensions in the week-old war. (Photo by Marc Israel SELLEM / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

What Iran’s hospital strike reveals about Israel’s missile defense limits

The direct strike highlights the limits of Israel's vaunted aerial defense systems as the Iran-Israel war intensifies.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

ROMAIN COSTASECA/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Crypto looted, TV hijacked: Iran grapples with wave of cyberstrikes

Iranian authorities had their work cut out for them on Wednesday, addressing at least three different cyberattacks linked to Israel.

The President will attend the annual meeting of the Group of 7 nations, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States are taking place in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Alberta, and will run until late Tuesday. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Analysis

Israel tests Trump’s promise to keep US out of new wars

The president who said he would bring peace to the Middle East now has another war unfolding on his watch.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press as workers install a large flag pole on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on June 18, 2025.

‘I’ve had it’: Trump threatens to ‘blow up’ Iran nuclear sites

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remains defiant in the face of Trump's rhetoric.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan.

UAE's MBZ and Putin hold call as Gulf, Russia push diplomacy on Iran-Israel

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be courting Gulf support for a diplomatic role in the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.

Iranian short-range missile (Tondar) is test-launched during war games in Qom, 120 kms south of Tehran, on September 27, 2009. Iran test-fired three short-range missiles as the Islamic republic began war games at a time of heightened tension with the West over its controversial nuclear programme. AFP PHOTO/SHAIEGAN/FARS NEWS (Photo by SHAIGAN / FARS NEWS / AFP) (Photo by SHAIGAN/FARS NEWS/AFP via Getty Images)

What we know about Fordow, Iran's secretive nuclear site Israel struggles to hit

A recent report indicated that Israel might need US help to hit Fordow, a heavily fortified facility located up to 300 feet underground.

TOPSHOT - Vehicles jam a highway as a fire blazes nearby in the oil depots of Shahran, northwest of Tehran, on June 15, 2025. Israel and Iran exchanged fire on June 14, a day after Israel unleashed an unprecedented aerial bombing campaign that Iran said hit its nuclear facilities, "martyred" top commanders and killed dozens of civilians. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Exodus, shortages and strikes: Tehran reels under weight of Israel-Iran war

Israeli strikes on Tehran have continued, prompting evacuation warnings, creating fuel and internet disruptions, and adding to the growing number of residents who are fleeing the capital.