Iran’s Engineered Election Leaves Reformists With No Good Options

Iranians will go to the polls this Friday to choose the successor to centrist President Hassan Rouhani, who is winding down his second four-year term and cannot run for reelection. The polls will take place in an atmosphere of widespread public apathy, as voters choose from a list of presidential candidates that has been heavily vetted beforehand. Of the seven contenders approved last month by the Guardian Council—an oversight body of 12 clerics who are closely aligned with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei—five are regarded as hard-liners, while the other two are uncharismatic moderates with relatively low profiles. Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line jurist, is widely seen as the front-runner.

As US withdraws, Afghanistan’s lure returns for Southeast Asian extremists – women and children included

It took 25-year-old Wardini and her two young children almost two months to travel with smugglers by road from Jordan, through Iran, to western Afghanistan. By the time they were arrested by Afghan border guards, she had burned their Indonesian passports. They were not going home, she told an Indonesian consular officer who visited her in a Kabul prison in 2019. With the end of days near, she and her children, both then under three, would live in “Khorasan, the blessed land”, she said.

Pentagon Works to Sharpen Definition of ‘Extremism’

Review could reshape cooperation with domestic agencies, consequences for troops’ social media posts, and more.

How do you define extremism? That’s one question the Defense Department is asking itself as it works to implement the first National Strategic for Countering Domestic Terrorism, released by the White House this week.

Rumors of U.S. Secretly Harboring Top China Official Swirl

Reports that a top Chinese official defected to the U.S. have swept Chinese-language media this week. The alleged reason? Sharing sensitive information about COVID-19 origins.

Chinese-language anti-communist media and Twitter are abuzz this week with rumors that a vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei defected in mid-February, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his daughter, Dong Yang.

The European Union Moves to Fight Terrorist Content Online

The European Union (EU) has adopted a new regulation that is designed to crack down on the dissemination of terrorist content online.

Despite safeguards to preserve freedom of speech, the new EU regulation is unlikely to curb potential tension with U.S. free-speech standards.

The new EU regulation can result in the imposition of financial penalties for non-compliance.

Iran and Venezuela Strengthen Ties as U.S. Looks on Warily

Iran and Venezuela appear to be expanding military ties, even beyond joint efforts to evade U.S. economic sanctions.

An Iranian flotilla carrying drones, assault helicopters, and fast-attack boats has entered the Atlantic Ocean, apparently bound for Venezuela.

Iran’s possible introduction of drone technology to Venezuela would enhance Iran’s efforts to project hard power into the Western Hemisphere.

Germany’s Failed Hezbollah Ban

In retrospect, Germany’s much-vaunted Hezbollah ban appears to have been little more than a publicity stunt aimed at silencing critics of the German government’s pro-Iran foreign policy.

Hezbollah has effectively evaded the ban by transferring many of its activities to charities and cultural centers controlled by Iran.