Iran experts you should be following

Since smart, informed content about Iran is needed now more than ever, some recommendations - by no means close to exhaustive - for folks you should be reading, watching or listening to.

I know how busy it gets when your field of expertise hits a news cycle, but I have no idea what it’s like to be doing non-stop media and writing at a time when family and friends are experiencing the horrors that Iranians went through last week. Sincere respect and gratitude for the work these people do:

Holly Dagres’ The Iranist is essential reading every week, although her most recent post is gut-wrenching.

Hamidreza Azizi’s Iran Analytica is a welcome addition to the Substack community. His latest post, The Myth of an IRGC Coup, is fantastic.

Friend of the Newsletter Mehran Kamrava. Last week I was going back to his LinkedIn profile several times a day to track his frequent TV interviews, which were invaluable.

Sanam Vakil, who runs the Middle East North Africa program at Chatham House and somehow is still able to speak and write and be on TV nearly all the time.

The team at Bourse & Bazaar, especially Esfandyar Batmanghelidj and Mehran Haghirian. Mehran’s piece from January 9th was a really insightful read.

Karim Sadjadpour gave an excellent long-form interview on Foreign Affair’s podcast last week and I highly recommend it.

There are many more but I just wanted to give a quick shout-out at the end of a long day.