Our Publications
Articles and Reports
November 29, 2023
While state-owned companies and the armed forces play leading roles in Iran's military UAV program, privately-owned companies are making a valuable but largely overlooked contribution as well. This report examines the most notable examples of private, knowledge-based companies working on Iranian drones that have been identified in open sources.
Articles and Reports
September 21, 2023
How quickly could Iran get enough fissile material for a small nuclear arsenal? This timetable estimates how quickly Iran could amass enough weapons-grade uranium for five bombs. Once it has the enriched uranium, however, it could take at least several months to turn it into a working weapon.
Articles and Reports
June 26, 2023
In the past, U.S. and European sanctions against Iran have focused heavily on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. But over the last two years, that focus appears to have shifted.
Articles and Reports
January 12, 2023
This article was first published in The Iran Primer. It is based on an Iran Watch report, Beyond the IR-1: Iran’s Advanced Centrifuges and their Lasting Implications.
Articles and Reports
December 19, 2022
Iran now has two programs run by separate institutions that produce large-diameter solid motors which could be used in ballistic missiles. This gives Iran the technological capacity to smash through its self-imposed 2,000-kilometer range limit at virtually any time it chooses.
Articles and Reports
November 29, 2022
Both Iran’s armed forces and Yemen’s Houthi rebels staged major military parades in late September. The two parades offered indications that Iran may be increasingly willing to supply the Houthis with its most advanced missiles, and to run greater risks in doing so.
Articles and Reports
February 28, 2022
Iran views its external security as reliant on its ability to exert influence in the Middle East. Owing to Tehran’s relative diplomatic and economic isolation, military power is the main tool available to Iran’s leaders for attaining this objective. To be effective, however, Iran must be able to use its military capabilities to credibly threaten...
Articles and Reports
November 22, 2021
As a result of illicit imports and domestic development since the late 1980s, Iran now possesses thousands of gas centrifuges, which are the mainstay of its nuclear program. These rapidly spinning machines enable Iran to enrich uranium to a level suitable for nuclear reactor fuel, or to a higher level suitable for nuclear weapons. The number and...
Articles and Reports
May 27, 2021
The new U.S. administration is seeking to reenter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear agreement reached in 2015 with Iran and six other parties. This effort has been complicated by the previous administration's "maximum pressure" policy, which sought to squeeze Iran with sanctions.
Articles and Reports
January 27, 2021
On October 8, 2020, the United States designated Iran’s financial sector and sanctioned eighteen Iranian banks. In doing so, the U.S. Treasury Department applied secondary sanctions to Iran's entire financial sector for the first time, potentially barring foreign entities from the U.S. financial system.