Maseh Zarif is a policy analyst specializing in Middle Eastern affairs, with a particular focus on Iran's nuclear program and regional security threats. He contributed articles to The Weekly Standard between 2009 and 2017, frequently arguing for a tougher U.S. stance toward Iran and addressing broader challenges such as the rise of ISIS. He has been affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, where he worked on Iran policy.
The U.S. counter-ISIS campaign may be racking up tactical victories in Iraq and Syria but the narrow focus on it also risks America’s interests over the long run. American military personnel and local partners have been taking the fight to ISIS, helping liberate territory from the Islamic extremist…
The Obama administration’s recent focus on finding a compromise to allow the Iranian regime to maintain some enrichment capabilities “for peaceful purposes” distracts from the underlying nuclear threat at hand. Any outcome short of the verifiable dismantling and end of the Iranian nuclear program…
An unnamed senior U.S. official responded to a report that Iran is building out the Fordow enrichment plant by describing the facility “as a ‘Potemkin’ plant, a façade that could not operate and was under close watch by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” according to NBC News. That…
The prospect of Iran achieving nuclear breakout capability is becoming more imminent. Reports this past weekend indicate that Iran has built the infrastructure needed for operating more efficient and advanced centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. The Iranian regime will be able to…
Iran has long stonewalled the IAEA, the organization tasked with enforcing multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that demand a halt to Iran’s illicit nuclear activities. And this week the rogue regime continued its march: Iranian leaders announced steps to accelerate and harden their…
U.S. and allied efforts to curb Iran’s developing nuclear capabilities are failing. Today, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) convenes its quarterly meeting, where Iran’s nuclear activities will once again be a key agenda item. The IAEA reported in its latest assessment that Iran’s…
President Obama noted at the beginning of April that the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)—along with the recent nuclear security summit, next month’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference and the pursuit of additional UNSC sanctions—is part of a message that “the international…
Two symbolic dates in Iran spurred anti-regime demonstrations across the country in the past five weeks. The most recent of these protests occurred this Monday on National Students Day--Iran's commemoration of the death of three students who protested against the 1953 visit of then-U.S. Vice…