Strategic Assessment

Iran has recently come under increasing domestic and international pressure stemming from three primary factors. The first is the changes to Iran’s strategic environment that resulted from the American operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, some of which have been positive for Iran but most of which have been negative. The second factor concerns new revelations about Iran’s progress towards acquiring nuclear weapons, sparking a great deal of international pressure on the country. The third factor is domestic unrest within Iran, characterized primarily by student protests against the policy and leadership of the ruling regime. The fact that these three sources of pressure emerged in the same period in effect links them and causes each one to influence the other, and their interplay makes it difficult for the regime to resolve them.