Our Publications
Policy Briefs
October 15, 2015
Iran’s Defense Ministry announced the successful test of a new ballistic missile on October 11. The test is an apparent violation of U. N. Security Council resolutions and raises troubling questions about Iran’s strategic intentions even after it accepted an international agreement restricting its nuclear program in July. The missile, called the...
Policy Briefs
October 5, 2015
Foreign ministers from the P5+1 countries and Iran met on September 28 for the first time since the nuclear agreement was finalized in July. The parties are focused on the agreement’s implementation, which should now be able to proceed following the failure of U.S. congressional opponents to pass a resolution of disapproval by a September 17...
Policy Briefs
September 15, 2015
The U.S. State Department issued a new round of sanctions against individuals and companies linked with Iranian proliferation on September 2, even as the nuclear deal with Iran moved closer to clearing key procedural hurdles in Congress. About one month earlier, the Commerce Department restricted trade with ten entities in China and South Korea...
Policy Briefs
September 3, 2015
Iran continues construction on a military site linked to nuclear weapons work, according to an August 27 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Agency has been barred from the site, known as Parchin, since 2005 and is monitoring changes there using satellite imagery. In its report, the IAEA noted “the presence of vehicles,...
Policy Briefs
July 30, 2015
One of the final hurdles in the nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 recently concluded in Vienna was the United Nations sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile program and conventional arms purchases. In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on July 28, Secretary of State John Kerry recounted that a compromise reached in the...
Policy Briefs
July 17, 2015
The nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015 establishes a step-by-step sequence for Iran to receive relief from the sanctions that have crippled its economy. The most damaging economic sanctions will be lifted in months, while nuclear, missile, and arms restrictions are meant to come off in no fewer than five...
Policy Briefs
July 14, 2015
President Barack Obama, speaking this morning from the White House after the successful conclusion of talks in Vienna, declared that the nuclear agreement with Iran “is not built on trust; it is built on verification.” Addressing an issue that had been a key sticking point in the negotiations, President Obama said that inspectors from the...
Policy Briefs
July 9, 2015
If negotiators in Vienna reach an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program, attention will shift toward Congress and its legislatively mandated review of the deal. For an agreement to be considered successful, it should, at minimum, achieve the goals set out by the United States at the outset of the talks: blocking Iran’s “four pathways” to a...
International Enforcement Actions
July 8, 2015
Nicholas Kaiga, a Belgian businessman who pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to evade export control regulations, was deported from the United States by U.S. immigration authorities on July 7, 2015. Kaiga attempted to export from the United States aluminum tubing used in the aerospace industry to a Malaysian front company, via Belgium,...
Policy Briefs
June 23, 2015
Iran has agreed to implement the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Additional Protocol as part of a comprehensive nuclear deal, but Iranian negotiators have been reluctant to grant the Agency inspection rights that go beyond the Additional Protocol, such as allowing access to military sites. Is the Additional Protocol sufficient for the...