Our Publications
Articles and Reports
March 21, 2023
How quickly could Iran build the bomb? This timetable estimates how soon Iran could produce the fuel for a small nuclear arsenal. Once it has the enriched uranium, however, it would need to turn it into a weapon, which could take anywhere from several months to a year or more.
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.
Articles and Reports
March 31, 2020
The indictment of Turkish state-owned Halkbank, unsealed late last year, is the first against a major bank for sanctions violations brought by the United States. The case sheds light on how, in the midst of negotiations on its nuclear program, Iran relied on this bank to launder money in order to relieve the economic pressure of international...
Articles and Reports
February 27, 2020
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran entered a new phase last month when the European parties to the agreement triggered its dispute resolution mechanism. The move comes months after Iran began taking steps that violate the JCPOA's nuclear restrictions.