Analysis
Counterpoint: Why is Iran the Only One Talking Tough?
As officials from the P5+1 and Iran renewed negotiations, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was taking a hard line on the talks saying Tehran would not back down "one iota". Joshua Goodman asks Jan Techau (Director, Carnegie Europe) and Roland Freudenstein (Deputy Director, Centre for European Studies) if Khamenei's statement is an indication of the limited chance for a deal and whether it should, in fact, be the West taking such a hard line.
High Stakes: What’s Next for U.S. Policy on Iran?
Having carefully studied the JCPOA, AJC opposed the 2015 nuclear accord, believing it was too risky a proposition. Six years on, the world is different, the Middle East is different, and America is different. Join AJC Jerusalem Director Avital Leibovich, AJC Transatlantic Institute Director Daniel Schwammenthal, AJC Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer Jason Isaacson, and “People of the Pod” host Seffi Kogen as they analyze what the lifting of US sanctions against Iran could mean for the region.
Iran Nuclear Talks: 2021 Is Not 2015
Resuming contacts with Iran has become an early foreign policy priority for the Biden administration and Europe. AJC CEO David Harris offers in his latest piece in The Times of Israel six recommendations for any future negotiations with Tehran. Since last year’s Abraham Accords the Middle East has undergone a fundamental shift. Consulting closely with America’s Sunni allies and Israel, President Biden can now rectify the JCPOA’s shortcomings on regional aggression, ballistic missiles, inspections, and the accord’s dangerous sunset clauses, which give the regime a patient pathway to nuclear threshold capability.
Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) Discuss U.S. Policy on Iran
Over 40 legislators, diplomats, and officials from Europe, North America, and Israel gathered for an exclusive Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) online discussion on the Biden administration’s policy on Iran. Speakers included Rep. Ted Deutch, Chair of the US House Subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism, MEPs Anna Fotyga and TFI Chair Lukas Mandl, both members of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Have the Transatlantic Stars Aligned on Iran?
Europe and the U.S. have been bitterly divided these past four years on how to counter Iran’s regional and nuclear aggression. Writing in Newsweek, AJC Transatlantic Institute Director Daniel Schwammenthal argues that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden now has a unique opportunity to forge a united transatlantic front against Tehran. Germany’s sudden call for a robust follow-up deal to the JCPOA and France’s public censure of the regime for its murder of the journalist Ruhollah Zam are promising signs.
The Hezbollah Threat in Hungary and Policy Options for Counterterrorist Efforts
15 December 2020
By Zsolt Csepregi
There are currently numerous terrorist organizations posing significant dangers to European, including Hungary’s security, but none has such an easy access to resources and...
Briefing: Hezbollah in Europe
AJC and the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) have produced an exhaustive, fact-based analysis that makes the case for the full designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. This brochure titled Hezbollah in Europe offers a more specific focus on our continent. It will...
Iran Is More Aggressive Than Ever Before
On 18 October the international arms embargo on Iran expired. The regime can now legally purchase upgraded and advanced weaponry. “This is bad news for the Middle East and sets the conditions for even more bloodshed,” writes AJC Berlin Director Remko Leemhuis in Switzerland’s biggest newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Germany, one of the JCPOA’s signatories, must live up to its special responsibility to help end Tehran’s quest for nuclear arms, its aggression in the region, and its support for terror proxies such as Hezbollah.
The Transatlantic Friends of Israel Meet on Hezbollah
Over 20 legislators from the Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) network discussed the Hezbollah threat with leading Knesset Member Avi Dichter, Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Michael Doran, and AJC Jerusalem Director Avital Leibovich. In light of Poland’s V4 Group presidency, TFI members Michał Jach, Chair of the Sejm's National Defence Committee, and Michał Kamiński, Deputy Speaker of the Polish Senate, hosted the exclusive virtual gathering in the presence of Israel’s ambassadors to Poland and Czechia.
Launch of Transatlantic Declaration Video: The EU Must Ban Hezbollah
AJC’s Transatlantic Institute and the Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI), an inter-parliamentary group in the European Parliament with the goal of strengthening the trilateral partnership between the U.S., Israel...
Major News Outlets Cover Call for EU Ban of Hezbollah
On the anniversary eve of Hezbollah's bomb attacks in Argentina in 1994 and Bulgaria in 2012, the leadership of the Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) presented to EU leaders a historic call for an EU ban of Hezbollah signed by over 240 lawmakers from 27 European countries, the U.S., Canada, and Israel. The declaration launch received wide coverage in the international media, including in POLITICO Europe, as well as in newspapers in the US, Germany, Poland, Italy, Bulgaria, the Baltics and of course Israel: