Iran

USS Abraham Lincoln, a large grey aircraft carrier, on blue water.

An Hour of Reckoning

Iran has never been weaker and America has never been more poorly led.

Brian Stewart 27 Feb 2026 · 7 min read

Cracked concrete wall painted with the Iranian and American flags, split down the centre to suggest geopolitical division.

After Trump’s Iran Decision

The real dilemma is not between war and negotiation. It is between episodic action and sustained architecture.

Allen Zeesman 26 Feb 2026 · 6 min read

Black-and-white composite portrait of Donald Trump and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei facing each other, with muted U.S. and Iranian flags and distant naval ships in the background.

President Donald Trump must choose between a military strike on Iran, whose consequences no one can predict, and a deal that would leave the Islamic Republic still able to attack its own citizens, menace Israel, and export terrorism worldwide.

Benny Morris 24 Feb 2026 · 10 min read

MBS in Saudi dress with a checked headscarf and dark robe, seated against a blue-toned backdrop with faint architectural shapes.

Saudi Arabia’s Counter-Reformation

The Takfiris are back in business.

Aurele Tobelem 4 Feb 2026 · 11 min read

Progressive Moral Reasoning and Iran’s Revolt

Progressive discourse has become highly adept at identifying oppression, exclusion, and harm. But it is far less capable of understanding the basic conditions of political order.

Roohola Ramezani 3 Feb 2026 · 11 min read

Crowd gathered on a city street at night as a person throws an object towards a burning tyre during a street protest.

The Supreme Leader’s Reckoning

The brutality the security forces are unleashing in Iran is not an improvisation. It is doctrine.

Roya Hakakian 27 Jan 2026 · 6 min read

Men stand among rows of black body bags laid on the ground outside a brick building.

Iran’s Weekend of Blood

How internet blackouts, morgue data, and medical testimony point to a five-digit death toll.

Shay Khatiri 23 Jan 2026 · 7 min read

Black-and-white portraits of two male revolutionary figures, set against a raised fist and Islamic symbols. It's Frantz Fanon and Ayatollah Khomeini.

Fanon and the Ayatollahs

The Third-Worldist roots of the Islamic Republic.

Aurele Tobelem 22 Jan 2026 · 11 min read

Portrait of a young adult man in a dark suit and red tie, smiling outdoors with the US Capitol dome blurred in the background

Inside Iran’s Deadly Protests with Shay Khatiri | Quillette Cetera Ep. 61

An Iranian-born political analyst breaks down the origins of Iran’s latest protest movement, the regime’s brutal response, and what a political transition could look like.

Zoe Booth, Shay Khatiri 20 Jan 2026 · 26 min read

Crowd of masked protesters gathered at night beside burning debris and parked cars on a city street, some holding placards.

Can the Ayatollahs Fall?

Amid the darkness of a communications blackout, Iranians are fighting for their freedom and the totalitarian theocracy under which they have lived since 1979 seems more threatened than ever before.

Benny Morris 12 Jan 2026 · 9 min read