The United Nations is at the Center of the Iran Nuclear Deal. Will It Also Be the Site of Its Unraveling? Mark Leon Goldberg July 2, 2019The United Nations is at the center of the Iran Nuclear Deal.It was a series of robust international sanctions passed by the UN Security Council that first brought Iran to the negotiating table. And then, it was an action of the UN Security Council that li...
President Trump Will Preside Over a UN Security Council Meeting About Iran. Iran’s President May Be There, Too Mark Leon Goldberg September 5, 2018Nikki Haley previewed a potential showdown at the Security Council between Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. Both men are expected to be in New York during the annual UN General Assembly later this month. And now there is a very good ch...
Withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Deal Undermines Everything Else the United States is Trying To Accomplish at the Security Council Mark Leon Goldberg May 8, 2018The Iran nuclear deal, otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is not just a deal between the United States and Iran. Rather it is a multilateral deal involving seven countries: The USA, Iran, China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany. Fiv...
The Relationship Between Iran and the Human Rights Council is Extremely Contentious Mark Leon Goldberg February 28, 2018An Iranian government official who is under sanctions by the United States and European Union addressed the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday. This, appropriately, caused a great deal of concern among human rights proponents around the world. The off...
Protests in Iran started over the price of eggs. Will they end with the toppling of the Islamic Republic? Mark Leon Goldberg January 4, 2018Iran is in the midst of its most significant protest and popular uprising since 2009, when the so-called Green Revolution was quashed by the government.Now, since December 28th, tens of thousands of people -- possibly more -- have taken to the streets ...
What the Kurdish Independence Referendum Means for the Middle East Mark Leon Goldberg October 5, 2017People in Kurdish region of Iraq have voted overwhelmingly for independence in a popular referendum that took place in late September. No country in the region wanted this referendum to happen -- and neither did the United States, with whom the Kurds have ...
Episode 145: Vali Nasr Mark Leon Goldberg April 10, 2017Vali Nasr was born in Iran, where his father was a high profile academic and university administrator Then came the revolution. They fled--and that traumatic experience, he says, shaped his intellectual development in ways he is only beginning to understa...
The IAEA Faces Big Budget Pressures Mark Leon Goldberg July 20, 2015Despite it's high profile, the International Atomic Energy Agency suffers from some of the same funding challenges as many UN agencies. Now that it is at the heart of the Iran nuclear deal, will its member states ease up on the budgetary pressure under which t...
The IAEA and Iran: How Inspections Work Mark Leon Goldberg July 16, 2015The nuclear deal with Iran is essentially grand bargain: Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for a gradual easing of international and national sanctions. But as President Obama is fond of saying, the agreement is not based on trust. It'...
