Sanctions have pushed thousands of Russian and Iranian buyers into Istanbul’s housing market. Many Istanbul residents blame the influx of foreign investors for rising property prices.

The scale of solar investments is far from shifting the GCC away from its heavy dependence on fossil energy and solar power is far less promising in the Arabian Peninsula than many outside observers might think.

A new report, citing data from Kpler, an analytics company, claims that Iranian oil exports to China will reach 1.5 million barrels per day this month, the highest level in a decade.

In a world with two parallel financial systems, a country would not necessarily have a single reserve bank.

Iranian listed companies have managed to grow profits despite major cost pressures stemming from sanctions. This may be because firms are exercising extraordinary pricing power.

Central Asia faces rising demand for energy, spurred by population growth and climate change, but most of the region’s power generation and transmission infrastructure dates to the Soviet era.

Uzbekistan is seeking a dialogue with the world and economic conference can serve to build trust and generate credibility.

The shared oil and gas fields in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman are largely untapped areas for bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

European Union leaders have agreed on a landmark embargo of Russian oil that will seek to slash imports by 90 percent by the end of the year. That is bad news for Iran.

A new round of protests has begun in Iran. People are taking to the streets following a controversial subsidy cut perceived as an increase in the price of bread.

Significant attention has been paid to the impact of the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s economic contraction on Uzbekistan. But Uzbekistan’s exposure to the crisis does not just stem from the contraction of remittances coming from Russia.

Qatar’s transport minister made a two-day trip to Iran’s Kish Island, during which officials and businesspersons from both countries explored possible teamwork as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 World Cup.

For both policymakers applying sanctions and those seeking to resist sanctions, better policy outcomes require supply-side thinking.

Iran’s public sector workers often mobilise during annual budget negotiations, a drawn-out process involving multiple state actors and institutions.

Comparing the economies of Russia and Iran, it is reasonable to assume that Russia will endure its financial war.

Most of the questions around the JCPOA’s economic prospects revolve around whether European companies will bother to engage in the Iranian market given the challenging experience of the last few years. But there is another trade relationship that arguably matters more.

Sanctions relief will enable Iran to buy the industrial goods that will undergird the country’s economic resilience for the next two decades.

The appointment of Ali Salehabadi as Iran’s new central bank governor reflects the generational shift underway in Iranian policymaking—he was born just one year before the revolution that led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s economic stagnation and widening inequality are top concerns for Iranian voters. It is therefore no surprise that during the three televised debates, candidates ganged up on Abdolnasser Hemmati, until recently Iran’s central bank governor.

A new IMF estimate has led to claims that Iran’s gross international reserves have been “wiped out.” But a closer look at the data makes clear that this is far from the case.

Trump tied American jobs to endless wars in the Middle East. Biden should link them to renewed diplomacy.

Turkmenistan has long struggled to sell its enormous natural gas reserves to a diverse range of customers. With the country’s natural gas surplus expected to rise even higher in the coming years, increasing exports to Iran may be the best solution.

A public opinion survey conducted in October by researchers at the University of Maryland provides insights into how the Iranian public is reacting to an economy battered by U.S. sanctions and ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic

Maximum pressure has not destroyed the Iranian economy, and Nicolás Maduro’s beleaguered government may be learning from Iran’s model of resilience.

In these interviews, two Iranian pharmaceutical executives detail an acute need for some medicines and shed light on some of the regulatory, operational, and integrity risks that foreign pharmaceutical companies face on the ground.

The Rouhani administration has lofty goals to grow Iran-Iraq trade as Iran seeks to expand its non-oil exports. But dysfunction at the border and a lack of government support have frustrated many Iranian exporters.

Falling output over the past two years has made clear the limits of the Iranian government’s ability to grow the automotive sector without foreign partnerships and new investment.

The rollercoaster ride that has taken the rial to a historic low of IRR 215,000 to the dollar does not tell us as much about the health of the Iranian economy as is widely assumed.

When industry minister Reza Rahmani sat down for a meeting with Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri on Monday, he did not know that he was about to be sacked.

Iran’s giant automakers, Iran Khodro and Saipa, are in a tug of war with the Rouhani administration over demands to lift price controls. The state-owned firms are seeking to increase prices by 40 percent.

Earlier this month, Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi, Iran’s air force commander, ended weeks of speculation about the imminent delivery Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets.

In March, China managed to a broker a détente between Iran and Saudi Arabia, achieving a diplomatic breakthrough that had eluded European governments. But Europe and China have shared interests in the region and there is scope for the two powers to work together to foster further multilateral diplomacy.

SIPRI has corrected its data on Iran’s military spending, applying a more relevant exchange rate for dollar conversions. Instead of ranking as the 14th largest military spender in the world in 2021, Iran was actually ranked 39th.

This week, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi flew to China for a three-day state visit at the invitation of Xi Jinping, marking the first full state visit by an Iranian president in two decades.

At the end of January, the board of Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) took the decision to liquidate the company.

At the second meeting of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership, regional economic integration was a new focus for the countries involved.

Xi Jinping’s recent trip to Riyadh, his first foreign visit to the Middle East since the pandemic, suggests that China may no longer seek to treat Iran and its Arab neighbours as equals.

A participatory budgeting initiative may prove a vital step forward in Uzbekistan’s political development if it opens the path to wider democratic reforms.

The final demarcation of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border was expected to be a tremendous political victory for Kyrgyzstan. But instead of celebration, the agreement has spurred domestic unrest and intensified repression.

The Biden administration should adjust its sanctions policies to authorise remittance transfers to Iran, making it possible for Iranians in the diaspora to support their family members in ways that strengthen capacities for political participation.

If the SCO is to mature as an organisation and make good on its vision of connectivity, it must also serve as a platform for conflict resolution.

Members of the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will meet later this week in Samarkand. But the assembled leaders may struggle to find common ground in the face of regional and global crises.

Western governments believe that Iran’s continued enrichment activities are allowing Iranian nuclear scientists to gain “irreversible knowledge.” But what if sanctions pose their own irreversible knowledge problem?

An open letter co-signed by 61 Iranian economists addresses the government and the Iranian people about the country’s economic challenges.

SIPRI produces the world’s most authoritative data on global military expenditure and the arms trade. But for years they have been overstating the size of Iran’s military budget.

Reports indicate that the “final hurdle” facing the Iran nuclear negotiations is Iran’s demand for the removal of the Foreign Terrorist Organisation designation placed on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, part of Iran’s armed forces.

The unfolding crisis in Ukraine offers the latest evidence of Putin’s irredentist obsessions and the ways in which those obsessions threaten the political and economic integrity of Russia’s neighbours.

The choice we face as those working on Iran policy is not about choosing between Plan A or Plan B—it is much bigger than that.

Iran’s Arab neighbours have acknowledged that they can benefit from JCPOA-related sanctions relief, suggesting that regional diplomacy underway has reinforced trust in the nuclear talks.

If Iranian leaders are concerned that the “economic war” might resume if Trump returns to office 2024, they ought to remember that they are in an economic war right now. The restoration of the JCPOA represents an opportunity for a useful ceasefire.

Leaders in the United Arab Emirates are eyeing an economic windfall should the Biden administration succeed in its effort to return to Iran nuclear deal. But they have not waited for the lifting of sanctions to begin earning billions from Iran.

A new report from the Majlis Research Center offers the first assessment of what “verified” sanctions relief might look like, providing a glimpse into how negotiators will take forward a key demand set out by Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Although Iran’s accession to the SCO—which may take up to two years to complete—appears significant, the move is unlikely to substantially change Iran’s geopolitical position.

Raisi’s new cabinet is composed of men he has praised as “expert, efficient and revolutionary.” The question is to what extent the cabinet can implement the resistance economy model given its inherent limitations.

The Rouhani administration’s efforts to foster regional diplomacy were never taken seriously by Arab leaders. But the participation of Iran in the Baghdad Conference makes clear that the importance of regional diplomacy is understood even among Iran’s so-called hardliners.

The Raisi administration must ensure that Iran’s foreign policy serves to minimise external challenges, so that the capacity of the government can be focused on the domestic crises where the needs are most acute.

Unwinding sanctions will be central to reviving the nuclear deal. If the Biden administration wants a lasting solution, it must involve Iran’s central bank governor.

The Arab moment has passed. Competition between non-Arab powers—Turkey, Iran, and Israel—will shape the region’s future.

Earlier this week, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the foreign minister of Qatar, travelled to Tehran in the latest instance of Doha's efforts to act as a facilitator for the resolution of international conflicts.

Maintaining maximum pressure to inflict more pain won’t bring Tehran back to the negotiating table or halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

In recent years, Iranian women have accounted for a growing share of major Iranian accounts on Instagram, seizing economic opportunities that are unavailable in Iran’s offline economy. Today, that progress is at risk.

One year has passed since the tragic death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in police custody and the start of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, which has induced cultural transformations within society and families in Iran.

Iranians are using Instagram for political activism like never before. But these changes were not sudden. The “Mahsa Moment” was driven by user trends on social media that have been years in the making.

Iranian women, supported by the many men who have now joined them, are challenging the discrimination they have experienced for decades.

For four days, protestors have been in Iranian streets. Iran has seen multiple waves of unrest in recent years. But this time, the protests seem different.

Esfahan is accused of being privileged as water protests expose regional inequalities in access to the Iranian government.

A wide range of social groups in Iran have been mobilising to express their socioeconomic grievances. Grappling with concessions made by the previous administration, Iran’s new president is on the back foot.

Faced with the gravity of the COVID-19 outbreak, members of Iranian civil society and private sector business leaders have joined the fight against the virus, seeking to address gaps in the government’s response.

Iranians are staying at home, doing their part to “flatten the curve” as the country confronts COVID-19. Adjusting to confinement at a stressful and uncertain time, many Iranians have found a new and creative pastime—baking bread.