PersuMedia Minutes

This Issue Watch of the Week episode covers the most pressing issues in the Iranian media (05 MAR - 12 MAR 2024) covered by PersuMedia analysts for Iran Daily Summary.

This Issue Watch of the Week episode covers the most pressing issues in the Iranian media (28 FEB - 05 MAR 2024) covered by PersuMedia analysts for Iran Daily Summary.

This Issue Watch of the Week episode covers the most pressing issues in the Iranian media (FEB 21- FEB 27) covered by PersuMedia analysts for Iran Daily Summary.

Observers from across the political spectrum have seemingly reached a consensus that despite a détente with Riyadh, the Arab world’s dominant power, Iran’s relations with Saudi Arabia and most other regional countries remain tense and ineffective. Link

Iran faces increasing domestic and international pressure to demonstrate flexibility in negotiations with the U.S. over sanctions. www.persumedia.com

Iran’s effort to redefine its relationship with "resistance forces" and dissociate itself from their actions will not prove easy.

Are Beijing's newly announced joint naval exercises with Iran and Russia and expanding defense partnerships with Saudi Arabia a way to deflect US criticism? Or is China pursuing a strategy that plays to its strengths? 

As Iran is pulled into the political black hole of totalitarian rule, it may be heading to its own destruction. One may hope that the steady demand for change from an oppressed population will, over time, weaken the Paydaris’ planned Islamic state until it, too, disperses into the mist. https://www.persumedia.com/

China’s rising concerns about conflict in the Red Sea have led it to increase pressure on Iran, threatening vague consequences if the Houthis are not restrained. This episode will take a look at what’s at stake for China and what they may - and may not - be willing to risk. https://www.persumedia.com/

From the perspective of a military superpower, China has not been doing great in the Middle East. But from the perspective of a conservative economic powerhouse with a long-term plan, it's doing a great job. 

Tehran has gained its gaudy hard power at the cost of Iran’s long-term development and economic strength. It may be little comfort right now to Israelis defending the border with Lebanon or Western forces trying to keep open the Red Sea, but with every missile it fires off, Iran becomes just a little bit poorer and weaker. https://www.persumedia.com/

Is the cure worse than the disease? China's reaction to the Houthis disruptive activities has been consistently negative, but relatively muted. They seem far more concerned that US and UK retaliatory strikes will lead to a regional escalation.

The concerns are not exaggerated;  the US and Iran have now both taken direct military action against perceived allies of the other, and tensions are rising along the Lebanese border between Hizballah and Israel.

The war in Gaza has extended into the New Year like a nasty hangover and, as it continues to throb, calls for the United States to take more robust military action grow louder. Particularly galling to many is the threat to shipping posed by the Iranian-allied Houthis of Yemen, who have promiscuously fired off missiles and drones at commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

As the historian Olmstead noted, when Cyrus entered Babylon in 539 BC, the world was already old. It’s older still now, and if we are aware of its antiquity and its history, we must surely be aware of the constant tension between pragmatism and ideology and not puzzle too much over the fact that humans individually or collectively are capable of wondrous and paradoxical things.  Round and round th...

His Nibs is 84 and, in the past, has been treated for prostate cancer. With each passing year, the likelihood grows that he will shuffle off this mortal coil and, for the first time since 1989, the Iranian political establishment will need to select—or “discover” as the more hardline ones would have it—a new supreme leader. https://www.persumedia.com/

With the collapse of the ceasefire and rising international opposition to Israeli operations in Gaza, the regional situation is changing rapidly, but China has remained consistent in its response and in its regional diplomatic efforts: focused on economics and diplomatic initiatives, causing consternation among a rising number of critics in Iran. 

Tehran may be frustrated by its Arab and Muslim partners’ disinterest in oil boycotts and breaking relations with Israel, but Iranian leaders know they have a much greater chance of gaining a hearing, and perhaps changing minds, if they stay inside the tent instead of sniping at the Arabs from outside.

They’re ba-ack. Still trying to resist the tide of social change in Iran, the Nezam has deployed vigilantes— hejabban (“hejab guardians”)—to public places to police women’s fashion.  For the past year since the Women, Life, Freedom protests that rocked Iran, Tehran has puzzled over how to enforce increasingly unpopular traditional notions of female modesty without reigniting civil unrest. More

The welcome, if temporary, silencing of the guns in Gaza this past week has given us a short respite from the dominance of foreign events in the Iranian news media and a chance to focus on the prosaic workings of the Iranian government. In particular, the administration of President Ebrahim Ra’isi is in the midst of putting together a budget for the coming Persian year and presenting it to the Maj...

After weeks of diplomatic effort, China was nowhere to be found in the negotiation of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Is this a failure on the part of Chinese diplomacy, or does it simply reflect Beijing's more limited objectives? Has Chinese diplomacy really been harmed in any way? This week with Guy Burton, expert on Middle East Policy and author of the book "China and M...

As Americans prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, the announcement of a short truce in the war in Gaza, along with a partial exchange of hostages and prisoners, shone through the gloom as a rare bit of good news from this otherwise unhappy crisis. More on our website .

Recent comments from US officials have urged China to "temper" Iran's response to the Israeli siege of Gaza and support for Hamas in the wake of the October 7th attacks on Israel. But is China ready, willing, and able to do so? 

While keeping an eye on Iran’s efforts to extend its power and influence across the region, like the boiling, swelling outer layers of a red giant, remember that the fervor and ideas that have fueled the revolution are largely spent, and the Nezam’s core is shrinking. ( link)

Observers too often become overawed by what the “mountain” might do, and discount how much sense it makes for it to bring forth a mouse.