On the anniversary of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, former European Commission Vice-President Catherine Ashton reflects on the diplomacy behind the landmark JCPOA agreement, why it worked, and what its collapse means today. Ashton argues that collective leadership and renewed European engagement remain essential to securing long-term regional stability.
In the face of sustained conflict in the Persian Gulf, oil, gas, and fertiliser supplies are running low, and prices are running high. Nations across the globe are reevaluating their geostrategic partnerships in the face of this disruption. To unpack the full international implications of the US/Israeli-Iran war, ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El is joined by Shihoko Goto of the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and Rebecca Christie of Bruegel.
Following the agreement of the ceasefire between Iran and the United States earlier this week, ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El is joined by Professor Lina Khatib of both the Harvard Belfer Center and Chatham House, to assess who “won” this war, the ramifications for Iran’s proxies across the region, and what the survival of the regime means for the wider world.
As the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its third week, the situation appears bleak, with Iran and its neighbours’ infrastructure destroyed, the world’s energy market in turmoil, and the reputation of the US severely damaged in the eyes of its allies. ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El is joined by Iran historian Dr Liora Hendelman-Baavur of Tel Aviv University and Maneli Mirkhan, strategist and Iran expert, to break down recent events and look to the future.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 was a shock to the Middle East, with the Gulf states aligning with the US, and Iran cultivating a “Shia Crescent” in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Dina Esfandiary joins ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El to guide us through the historical and geographic complexities of Iranian-American hostilities.
Following the recent US–Israeli strikes on Iran and the subsequent regional escalation, Europe’s response has been mixed. As the conflict widens, we ask members of the ELN Network how they assess Europe’s approach so far and what role European governments should be playing.