Find all the latest Iran Group Statements, Policy Interventions & Briefs, Commentary and Analysis below.
The Iran Network supported work between 2018-2023 to protect the JCPOA between the P5+1 and Iran, and thereby to implement UN Resolution 2231. This included working with partners across Europe and in Washington and engaging the ELN’s senior network of political, military and diplomatic figures. Our focus was to ensure that Europe plays the fullest and most effective role possible by helping E3 governments and Brussels to better understand and address key challenges in sustaining what remained of the nuclear agreement and productively engage on peripheral issues. Since 2023 we have moved on to a new phase of Iran work looking more broadly at the prospects for nuclear diplomacy in a changing global and regional political context.
The ELN and The Iran Project release a joint, high-level transatlantic statement on US sanctions and the need to ease humanitarian trade with Iran in the wake of the global COVID-19 outbreak.
European think tank directors and founders from Rome to Riga issue a joint call to the US to reconsider its approach to the Iran nuclear deal.
Over 100 European political, diplomatic and military leadership figures are appealing to President Trump not to take unilateral action that would jeopardise the deal and trigger a crisis in US-Europe relations.
In October, the ELN and Hanns Seidel Foundation partnered on a track 1.5 meeting in London which brought together a range of European and Iranian participants both to assess how the JCPOA could still be revived and to consider alternative scenarios in more detail. The ELN’s Policy and Impact Director, Jane Kinninmont, captures the key highlights from the meeting.
On the eve of the seventh round of negotiations on the restoration of the JCPOA – or Iran nuclear deal – the ELN and the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation publish a set of creative ideas to help bridge gaps related to guarantees and sanctions relief.
To lead during this global crisis, Europe must boost production of medical supplies not just to meet demand at home, but also to sustain commercial exports so the developing world isn’t solely dependent on aid.
Ahead of the European Parliament’s exchange of views on the implementation of Iran’s NPT Safeguard Agreement and other nuclear obligations, this policy brief outlines growing differences on the topic between Russia and the West.
The European Leadership Network releases recommendations ahead of the 10 January meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union on Iran and the Middle East.
New analysis by Bourse & Bazaar and the European Leadership Network evaluates INSTEX’s design and operationalization.
Following Iran’s direct attack on Israel on 13th April, Hemidreaza Azizi examines both the official and unofficial discourse in Iran in recent days. He writes that most political experts and analysts in Iran seem to agree that Iran’s goal has been to restore deterrence and not to enter into war. However, concerns about the outbreak of an unintended war and its destructive consequences appear to be more pronounced among experts than among official figures.
Ilana Bet-El, Senior Associate Fellow at the ELN, speaks with Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief of the Forward and former New York Times Bureau Chief in Israel, and Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian of Cambridge University, Senior Associate Fellow at the ELN, and an expert on Iran and the Middle East. They discuss their own experiences of 7 October, their reactions to the war in Gaza, the implications for the media, geopolitics and the region, and the escalatory nature of the war following Iran’s increased role in the conflict over the past week.
One year on from the death of Jina Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police, which sparked unprecedented protests across the country in support of women’s rights, Dr. Azadeh Zamirirad calls for European decision-makers to take a feminist approach to their foreign policy with Iran and in their response to Iran’s feminist uprising.
Hamidreza Azizi examines reactions in Iran to the Wagner groups rebellion. He writes that the wide range of responses to the mutiny, from government statements and state media to independent analysts, illustrates a broader trend of polarisation in Iranian foreign policy that has been increasingly visible in recent years in a multitude of areas, from nuclear negotiations to geopolitical alliances.
It is simply unrealistic of Biden’s critics to think the US can obtain a “better deal” in which Iran makes sweeping concessions without gaining anything in return. But if the JCPOA is restored, new channels will open for multilateral diplomacy with Iran, write Esfandyar Batmanghelidj and Sahil Shah
US President Biden and his team have stated their interest in restoring alliances with Europe. Sahil Shah argues that there is no better place to start than announcing bold action on Iran and the JCPOA at this year’s Munich Security Conference, a topic that did more damage to transatlantic trust and security relations under Trump than any other issue.
The European Leadership Network can provide journalists with expert advice and commentary on key developments on Iran. For media advice or to speak to one of our experts or network members, call +44 (0)203 176 2550 or email [email protected].