Year: 2021

Iranian Perceptions of the U.S. Soft Power Threat

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To understand Iranian anxieties about Western cultural invasion, one need look no further than Psychological Operations Quarterly, a journal published until recently by the IRGC’s Social-Cultural Directorate. Focusing on the “soft war” waged by various Western entities, the periodical covers such material as supposedly anti-Iranian films (Alexander, The Wrestler, Argo), the relationship between McDonald’s franchises and the fall of the Soviet Union, and the harm done by English-language textbooks to the Iranian mind. Since 1979, in response to such perceived threats, the Islamic Republic has intensified enforcement of morality laws, purged professors from universities,…

Soleimani’s Shadow: The Fatemiyoun Division and Iranian Proxy Warfare Propoganda

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Abstract Thousands of ethnic Afghan foreign fighters with the Iranian-backed Fatemiyoun Division and Zeynabiyoun Brigade have fought and died in Syria’s civil war over the last decade. Shia fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan have been critical not only to Iran’s successful quest to restore Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s regime, but as an asset for Tehran in its fight for regional primacy against Israel and other rivals. Fatemiyoun fighters will continue to serve on the frontlines of Iran’s proxy wars across the Middle East long into the future. This report…

Hezbollah is using propaganda to cover its deterrence deficit with Israel

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This article originally appeared in the Atlantic Council’s MENASource on March 12, 2021. Tensions between Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel have elevated since the July 20, 2020 Israeli airstrike on Damascus that killed the group’s fighter Ali Kamel Mohsen. Hezbollah should have avenged Mohsen by now and its continued failure to do so is creating a growing “deterrence deficit” vis-à-vis Israel. Hezbollah will likely use armed force to bridge this gap when more opportune conditions arise in Lebanon. Until then, the group is using propaganda to maintain the impression that its…

Bulletin 22 Jan – 9 Feb 2021

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Intelligence Minister implicates IRGC mole in Fakhrizadeh assassination; cancellation of Qalibaf meeting with Putin controversy; Iran Judiciary chief visits Iraq; recent Iran-Taliban talks; Huthi terror delisting reactions; Slim assassination; Huthi offensive in central Yemen

Hezbollah won’t avenge Qasem Soleimani’s death—for now

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This article originally appeared in Atlantic Council’s Iran Source on February 8, 2021. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah remains committed to avenging Qasem Soleimani’s death—at least rhetorically. Shortly after the United States assassinated the Quds Force commander in January 2020, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah vowed that US troops “who came to the region vertically will return home horizontally.” His hand gesture—a horizontal hand affixed perpendicularly over a vertical hand—representing US forces returning home in coffins became the official symbol of Iran and the Resistance Axis’ promised “Hard Revenge.” Nevertheless, at the time of Soleimani’s…