MER Article Report from Amman When King Hussein announced last July that Jordan was severing its political ties with the West Bank, he implicitly acknowledged that his strategy of 20 years, to broaden and deepen his political base there, had been overtaken by the Palestinian uprising. The Palestinian revolt has asserted an indep Lamis Andoni • 5 min read
MER Article Column Passing the Test On October 13, 1988, the Nobel Prize committee in Stockholm announced that the 1988 prize in literature had been awarded to Egyptian novelist and playwright Naguib Mahfouz -- the first time an Arab writer had received this honor. In its front-page story on the award, the New York Ti Al Miskin • 5 min read
MER Article Gulf War Refugees in Turkey A largely ignored byproduct of the Iranian revolution and the Gulf war has been the large influx of refugees into Turkey. The economic benefits of Turkish neutrality during the Gulf war led Ankara to downplay the problem, but the recent arrival of Kurdish refugees has strained regional ties and clou Ömer Karasapan • 8 min read
MER Article The Islamic Resistance Movement in the Palestinian Uprising By the beginning of the first week of October 1988, as the Palestinian uprising moved into its eleventh month, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, known by its Arabic acronym Hamas) had issued its thirtieth communiqué. Hamas appears to be engaged in a competitive race Lisa Taraki • 10 min read
MER Article An Open Letter to Comrade Mikhail Gorbachev Dear Comrade, Surprising as it may be, an Iraqi citizen addresses you through the Western press. I have no guarantees that, if my letter reaches your media, its contents would be passed to the Soviet people. My message is quite plain: A people in the Middle East is being exterminated. The Soviet p (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article "The Fear Can Drive You Crazy" “Roya” is how she wants to be known. She was arrested in Iran in the fall of 1982. She was released four years later and lived in Tehran for 15 months before coming to the US in early 1988. Eric Hooglund spoke with her in Washington in October 1988. Can you describe the circumstances of your arrest Eric Hooglund • 11 min read
MER Article Iran and the Gulf Arabs Within weeks of Iran’s surprise acceptance of a ceasefire in its war with Iraq last July, perceptions of the regime in Tehran on the Arab side of the Gulf underwent a radical transformation. Governments in Kuwait, Riyadh and Bahrain pledged to forget past clashes, restore full diplomatic ties and la MERIP's Special Correspondent in Iran • 3 min read
MER Article Iran and Lebanon What are current relations between Iran and Lebanon? What has been the import of Iran’s revolution on Lebanon’s Shi‘i community? These were the questions we put to Ahmad Baydoun, poet, man of letters and professor of history at the Lebanese University, in Boston in late October. irene gendzier • 3 min read
MER Article The Revolution's First Decade It is now ten years since the triumph of the Iranian revolution and the assumption of power by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his forces on February 11, 1979. If the revolution itself was a surprise, destroying an apparently strong and capable regime and bringing a most unexpected clerical leadersh Fred Halliday • 9 min read
MER Article "There Is a Feeling That the Regime Owes Something to the People" Ahmad Ashraf is an Iranian sociologist currently teaching in the United States. He is presently working on a book with Ali Banuazizi on social classes and the state in contemporary Iran. Ervand Abrahamian and James Paul spoke with him in New York City in late October. How would you describe the reg Ervand Abrahamian, James Paul • 17 min read
MER Article The Islamic Republic at War and Peace Ten years after the Iranian revolution swept the Shah from power, and contrary to innumerable prophecies of its demise, the Islamic Republic endures. Many of the revolution’s original leaders remain in power and many of their goals, although not yet fulfilled, continue to be policy objectives. Eric Hooglund • 23 min read
MER Article From the Editors (January/February 1989) As President-elect George Bush sits down to lunch with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in early December 1988 to discuss the modalities of Detente II, we wonder what the prospects are for any similar sort of US rapprochement with the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It took 16 years, from The Editors • 4 min read
