Assessing the rhetoric and actions of the Supreme Leader’s senior advisor for international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, provides a valuable window into the attitudes and priorities of the Supreme Leader himself.

Editor's Note: FMSO’s Operational Environment Watch provides translated selections and analysis from a diverse range of foreign articles and other media that analysts and expert contributors believe will give military and security experts an added dimension to their ...

Upon the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led Friday prayers at Tehran University. His sermon would carry the weight of an American State of the Union address. With time, Khomeini and his successor Ali Khamenei designated a substitute prayer leader from amongst the regime hierarchy.

The Islamic Republic of Iran will soon hold parliamentary elections, its first national election since widespread protests led to a violent crackdown following the 2009 presidential contest. Iranian leaders have described the upcoming parliamentary election, scheduled for March 2, as a critical event for the regime.

In a complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court, Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri, aka Turkcell, the Turkish mobile media giant, alleges that MTN Group Ltd, Africa’s largest mobile operator, bribed Iranians, sold South African votes at the IAEA and UN, and otherwise prostituted South African foreign policy to oust Turkcell from its contract in Iran and gain the lucrative market for itself.

In the latest Middle Eastern Outlook, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Iran scholar Ali Alfoneh writes about Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's power struggle with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei’s strategy is to suppress Iraq with militias.  He seeks to impose through the barrel of a gun what isn’t in Iraqis’ hearts and minds. Khamenei wants a compliant little brother, not a democracy next door.

Regardless if it is Khamenei or the IRGC who is responsible for the terror plot, the Islamic Republic should be held responsible and should also pay a price for its adventurist policies. Otherwise a bolder and more assertive leadership in Tehran will test Washington’s redlines.