Iran

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• SOURCE: NBC News
  6/7/2020
  

  A Message from 'Queen Elizabeth' to the Shah Played Role in CIA 1953 Coup in Iran, Documentary Says

  Historians who uncovered a message from "Queen Elizabeth" believe its misinterpretation helped persuade the shah not to flee Iran at a pivotal moment.

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  5/19/2020
  

  Fundamentalist Pandemics

  by Juan Cole

  What evangelicals could learn from "The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam."

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  3/26/2020
  

  Sanctions Are Inhumane—Now, and Always

  by Aslı U. Bâli, Aziz Rana

  In a world imperiled by global pandemic, it is long past time to put an end to sanctions—including new ones against Iran—and to reconstruct U.S. foreign policy around international solidarity.

• 
• SOURCE: National Interest
  2/15/20
  

  Can Donald Trump Avoid a War with Iran? History Tells Us To Worry.

  by Lawrence J. Korb

  The last thing our military personnel and the country needs is another Vietnam or another unwinnable war in the Middle East. 

• 
• SOURCE: Al Jazeera
  2/11/20
  

  America held hostage

  by David Marks

  Forty years after the Iran hostage crisis, its impact endures.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  2/5/20
  

  How the US repeatedly failed to support reform movements in Iran

  by Pardis Mahdavi

  For 40 years, the relationship between the U.S. and Iran has been marked by disagreement – but also by a series of missed opportunities.

• 
• SOURCE: Madman of Chu
  1/19/20
  

  Imagining an Iranian Spring

  by Andrew Meyer

  The recent brush with war between the US and Iran underscores the persistent question of US-Iranian relations: will the two countries ever reach a point of mutual toleration ever again?

• 
• 1/16/20
  

  Stepping Back From the Brink of War

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  Trump’s order to kill General Soleimani is one of the most reckless acts taken by a president, who once again has put his personal political interest above the nation’s security.

• 
• SOURCE: Business Insider
  1/7/20
  

  In 1980, a 34-year-old Donald Trump said the US should invade Iran in response to the hostage crisis

  According to historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman, as cited by Brookings, this was Trump's first known comment on US foreign policy. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/10/20
  

  We’re living in the bizarre world that Flaubert envisioned

  by Susanna Lee

  Many might feel bewildered and demoralized. But fans of the 19th-century French novel have seen this before.

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  1/10/20
  

  The Iran Plane Crash Could Be the Latest in a Long History of Accidental Shoot-Downs

  Here’s what you need to know about some of the deadliest attacks on civilian aircraft.

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• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  1/12/20
  

  How the President Became a Drone Operator

  by Allegra Harpootlian

  From Obama to Trump, the Escalation of Drone Warfare

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/8/20
  

  War with Iran is not inevitable — but the U.S. must change course

  by Kelly J. Shannon

  The relationship between the countries, once friends and allies, has soured — because of U.S. aggression.

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  1/7/20
  

  Why Did the U.S. Kill Suleimani?

  by Elizabeth Cobbs and Kimberly C. Field

  The attack illustrates America’s lack of a clear grand strategy — and why we need one immediately.

• 
• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  1/9/20
  

  The Global War of Error

  by Tom Engelhardt

  Failure is the new success and that applies as well to the “industrial” part of the military-industrial complex. 

• 
• SOURCE: Madman of Chu
  1/6/20
  

  Obama was Right, Trump is Wrong on Iran

  by Andrew Meyer

  The legacy of the hostage crisis has predictably engendered a "hard line" wing of the foreign policy establishment in Washington with respect to US-Iranian relations, represented by figures such as Paul Wolfowitz, Daniel Perle, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.

• 
• SOURCE: HistoryExtra
  Accessed 1/9/20
  

  Understand the news with this brief history of Iran

  by Ali M Ansari

  From the US assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani to the ongoing case of the jailed mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Iran has scarcely been out of the headlines in recent months. But how far back does the history of Iran stretch?

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  1/7/20
  

  Academic researchers of Iranian history and more publish letter condemning Trump' threat to target Iranian sites

  Academic researchers of Iranian history, archaeology, art and culture, based in national museums and universities across the world, react in horror to the US president’s threat to target Iranian sites.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/6/20
  

  The disturbing history behind Trump’s threat to target Iranian cultural sites

  The United States for decades helped shape what some believed to be a new consensus on the destruction of cultural heritage: that this form of war and destruction is not only a crime against another warring party but also a crime against humanity that endangers civilian lives and dignity.

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  1/5/20
  

  Defenders of History Take Aim at Trump’s Threat to Strike Iran’s Cultural Sites

  Military attacks against cultural sites are against international law, and the United States has condemned the Islamic State and Taliban for similar destruction.