Iran Tracker

On October 11, 2011 the Department of Justice revealed that U.S. authorities had foiled a plot by Iran's Qods Force to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in a potential mass-casualty attack in Washington, DC. The Treasury Department subsequently identified several senior Qods Force officials involved in the plot, including Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Qods Force. AEI’s Critical Threats Project and the Institute for the Study of War have partnered to produce this video briefing on the plot and the networks involved.

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.

It seems that the Iraqi military does not share Secretary Panetta’s confidence that it is ready to handle security without a significant U.S. military footprint.

President Barack Obama announced on October 21, 2011 that U.S. forces would withdraw completely from Iraq by the end of 2011. The following are reactions to this announcement by officials in the Islamic Republic and its affiliates. Last updated: December 15, 2011.

The disrupted plot is yet another, albeit significantly more dramatic, escalation of Iran’s war against the U.S., Israel, and, now Saudi Arabia. Beyond the tactical consideration of countering the Qods Force as a terrorist organization that now seeks to operate within American territory, it is time to recognize that past and present strategies aimed at curbing Iran’s ambitions and aggression are failing.

Iran has been plotting a mass-casualty attack on American soil targeting Saudi Arabian interests. The significance of this plot cannot be overstated: the Iranian government is now attempting to carry out terrorist attacks on American soil.

The transformative events of the Arab Spring have presented the Islamic Republic with new challenges and opportunities. Most notably, while the regime has been forced to confront the contradictions inherent in its foreign policy, it has nonetheless continued to project its influence using both hard and soft power tactics.

Yesterday the Treasury designated six al Qaeda members as global terrorists. These operatives form a network that funnels money and personnel from the Gulf to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan via Iran and is tied to other enemy groups. Al Qaeda's safe haven in Iran is not unlike the militant sanctuary in Pakistan.

To counter Qassem Suleimani and the Quds Force in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, US strategists need to understand his history of overconfident behavior and military successes.

The Iranian regime has reinvigorated its use of hard and soft power tactics in Iraq as a means to undermine the American presence in Iraq and exert greater influence over the Iraqi government’s policies. Through its actions Iran is demonstrating that it is willing and capable of both exploiting the Iraqi state and killing Americans.

The international community is faced with an unprecedented impasse in Iran’s drive towards nuclear weapons. This week, Iranian leaders unequivocally rebuffed the UN atomic watchdog and announced steps to accelerate and harden their nuclear program. Such announcements underscore the failure of recent measures, including multiple rounds of diplomacy and sanctions, to change the behavior of the regime.

Iranian leaders, who seek to preserve the Assad regime, have publicly downplayed the significance of the Syrian protest movement while reportedly assisting Assad in his violent repression of the internal opposition.