Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Farideh Farhi

Farideh Farhi is an independent researcher and an affiliate of the Graduate Faculty of Political Science at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

Current Analysis

The Day Tehran Shook

Speaking to a journalist days after the February 26 elections in Iran, leading reformist Mohammad Reza Aref stated, “When I saw the results for Tehran coming in, I was shocked.” Aref had expected the top of the list he headed to do well in the contest for Tehran’s 30 seats in the Tenth Majles, or Pa

Farideh Farhi • 11 min read

Current Analysis

Narrowing the Options on the Table

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s foreign minister and former representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is not usually a sarcastic man. But he became one in early November following several days of leaks about the negative content of a pending IAEA report on Iran. “Marg yek bar, shivan

Farideh Farhi • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Anatomy of a Nuclear Breakthrough Gone Backwards

According to the headline writers at the hardline daily Keyhan, October 2 saw “a great victory for Iran” in Geneva. That day, Iran’s nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili had sat down with representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, the contact group known as the

Farideh Farhi • 15 min read

MER Article

Ahmadinejad's Nuclear Folly

The tumult in Iran since the June 12 presidential election is, without a doubt, the most significant sequence of events in the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution itself. No other occurrence -- not the Iran-Iraq war, not the 1989 turmoil that sidelined Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, until t

Farideh Farhi • 12 min read

Current Analysis

Iran's “Security Outlook”

Widespread apprehension attended the June 2005 election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, at least among those Iranians who had approved of the country’s direction under the reformist clerics led by President Mohammad Khatami. Their worries had little to do wi

Farideh Farhi • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Iran’s Nuclear File

After almost a week of contentious meetings, on September 24, 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution without precedent in its lengthy file on the Islamic Republic of Iran. In a split vote, the agency’s Board of Governors found that Iran’s “failures and breaches…constitute

Farideh Farhi • 19 min read