Making a deal with the world's leading sponsor of terrorism was always doomed to fail.

NUFDI's Andrew Ghalili and Khosro Isfahani unpack the regime's negotiation playbook and why it won't work while Donald Trump is the President of the United States.

A national uprising is unfolding in Iran. The regime has resorted to its usual response: dolling out death and destruction. Dozens, including children, have been killed. At least 1,200 people, 130 children among them, have been arrested. But this cycle of protests is different.

In this episode of the IranWatch podcast, NUFDI's Andrew Ghalili and Khosro Isfahani talk about the Iranians crystal clear message.

For decades, the world has been waiting for “Ayatollah Gorbachev” to rise to power in Iran and “reform” the clerical establishment from within. Most people have had rude wake-up calls, but some, especially in the West, are still holding on to the delusion.

In this episode of the IranWatch podcast, NUFDI's Andrew Ghalili and Khosro Isfahani untangle the “reformist” propaganda and unmask new actors of this decades-old soap opera.

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Over the past five decades, the Islamic Republic has established a caste system in Iran, where people are ranked based on their proximity to the regime and receive privileges based on their loyalty. Access to uncensored internet is no exception.

NUFDI's Andrew Ghalili and Khosro Isfahani break down the Islamic Republic's caste system in this episode of the IranWatch podcast.

A coordinated social media campaign out of Iran, plus news planted in mainstream media in the West, are trying to proclaim an end to hijab enforcement in Iran.

NUFDI Senior Policy Analyst Andrew Ghalili and Senior Research Analyst Khosro Isfahani unpack the myth in the first installment of the IranWatch podcast.

Gregg Roman is the executive director of the Middle East Forum, previously directing the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. In 2014, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency named him one of the “ten most inspiring global Jewish leaders,” and he previously served as the political advisor to the deputy foreign minister of Israel and worked for the Israeli Ministry of Defense. A frequent speaker on Middle East affairs, Mr. Roman appears on international news channels such as Fox News, i24NEWS, Al-Jazeera, BBC World News, and Israel’s Channels 12 and 13. He studied national security and political communications at American University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and has contributed to The Hill, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, and the Jerusalem Post. 

Gregg Roman: https://www.meforum.org/gregg-roman 

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Website: ⁠www.nufdiran.org⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠twitter.com/NUFDIran⁠⁠ 

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Pardis Sabeti is a computational biologist, medical geneticist, and evolutionary geneticist. She is a professor in the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, core institute member at the Broad Institute, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Sabeti and her lab have pioneered technologies for detecting, tracking, and countering deadly pathogens, including Ebola, Zika, Lassa, and SARS-CoV-2. They have also created some of the most powerful algorithms and molecular tools to characterize the human genome and transformative methods for gene delivery of new biomedicines to specific tissues.

Sabeti was named one of Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2014 (Ebola Fighters), and one of the Time 100 most influential people in 2015. Her continued efforts including during the COVID-19 pandemic led her to receive a Time 100 Impact Award and to be inducted into the National Academy of Medicine. She is the current host of the educational series Against All Odds: Inside Statistics sponsored by Annenberg Learner and a Crash Course on Outbreak Science and is the lead singer and a writer for the rock band Thousand Days.

Pardis Sabeti: https://www.sabetilab.org/pardissabeti/

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Find NUFDI

Website: ⁠www.nufdiran.org⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠twitter.com/NUFDIran⁠⁠ 

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Gabriel Noronha is a Fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) and Executive Director of POLARIS National Security. He advises Congress on Iran policy, with his research on Iran, Russia, and China cited in numerous congressional documents and legislation. Noronha previously testified on sanctions policy and exposed a $10 billion nuclear deal between Russia and Iran. From 2019 to 2021, he was a Special Advisor for the Iran Action Group at the U.S. Department of State, helping to implement the Maximum Pressure sanctions policy. He also served as Special Assistant for the Senate Armed Services Committee and Executive Director of the Forum for American Leadership. Noronha speaks Russian, Mandarin, and Spanish.

Gabriel Noronha: https://jinsa.org/person/gabriel-noronha/  

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Find NUFDI

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Twitter: ⁠⁠twitter.com/NUFDIran⁠⁠ 

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Youtube: ⁠youtube.com/nufdiran⁠

Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at FDD where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues. Behnam previously served as a research fellow and senior Iran analyst at FDD. Prior to his time at FDD, Behnam worked on non-proliferation issues at an arms control think-tank in Washington.

Leveraging his subject-matter expertise and native Persian skills, Behnam has closely tracked a wide range of Iran-related topics including: nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles, sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the foreign and security policy of the Islamic Republic, and internal Iranian politics. Frequently called upon to brief journalists, congressional staff, and other Washington-audiences, Behnam has also testified before the U.S. Congress and Canadian Parliament. 

His analysis has been quoted in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Fox News, The Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse, among others. Additionally, he has contributed to or co-authored articles for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Fox News, The Hill, War on the Rocks, The National Interest, and U.S. News & World Report. Behnam has appeared on a variety of broadcast programs, including BBC News, Fox News, CBS Interactive, C-SPAN, and Defense News.

Behnam earned his MA in International Relations from The University of Chicago, and his BA in International Affairs and Middle East Studies from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. 

Behnam Taleblu: https://www.fdd.org/team/behnam-ben-taleblu/

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FIND NUFDI

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Youtube:⁠ ⁠youtube.com/nufdiran⁠⁠

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Dr. Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East. 

A former pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed U.S. Navy and Marine units.

Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and co editor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi-ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); and “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014).

His conversation with NUFDI Senior Policy Analyst Andrew Ghalili touches on his experience living in post-revolution Iran and how it shaped his knowledge of Iran, the separation between the Iranian people and the Islamic Republic, and Iran’s territorial integrity. 

Michael Rubin: https://aei.org/profile/michael-rubin/

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FIND NUFDI

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Twitter: ⁠⁠twitter.com/NUFDIran⁠⁠ 

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