Iran's strikes undermined Israel's long-standing military superiority: John Helmer

Veteran journalist argues Tehran's ability to penetrate Israeli air defenses has strategic significance despite efforts to downplay its impact

TEHRAN – As Washington navigates renewed strikes on southern Iran alongside high-level visits to President Trump from both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, questions are mounting over the domestic political calculations driving U.S. policy in the Middle East and beyond.

By Sahar Dadjoo

Destruction of Iran's cultural sites by Israel, US tantamount to destroying a civilization

Historian Touraj Daryaee says international law is nearly powerless against superpowers, but UNESCO status could deter future attacks

TEHRAN – Since US and Israeli strikes began in February, over 130 registered monuments and museums across Iran have sustained damage, from the Golestan Palace to historic quarters in Isfahan, Kordestan, and Lorestan. In an exclusive interview with Tehran Times, Touraj Daryaee, historian of ancient Iran and editor of Encyclopaedia Iranica, discusses the emotional and scholarly weight of watching millennia-old heritage damaged within weeks, the limits of international legal accountability, and what the destruction means for how Iran's history will be told and remembered.

By Mona Hojat Ansari

'Hormuz Strait cannot return to pre-war status'

West Asia analyst says Iran must make aggression costly for US and its Arab allies

TEHRAN - In an interview with the Tehran Times, West Asia analyst Gheis Ghoreishi argues that the Strait of Hormuz is Iran's most valuable strategic card in its war with the United States, and that any return to the pre-war status quo would be a fatal mistake. 

By Sahar Dadjoo

Regional Arab states unwilling to fully follow US: Chinese scholar

Jianwei Han says the US wants to maintain hegemony in the Mideast through Israel

TEHRAN - Jianwei Han, an associate professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, believes Iran has shown extraordinary resilience against U.S. military pressure, and that the current confrontation marks a watershed moment reshaping the Middle East's strategic landscape.

By Sahar Dadjoo

Attacks on Iran's infrastructure may amount to ‘collective punishment’: Italian analyst

Chinappi says targeting ports and power networks reflects a hybrid warfare model designed to erode civilian life

TEHRAN - Giulio Chinappi, an Italian political analyst and researcher from the Center for Mediterranean Eurasia Studies (CeSEM), believes the collapse of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding reflects not a failure of diplomacy but a deliberate turn toward coercion by Washington and Tel Aviv.

'A display of power and a call for revenge'

Political analyst Ehsan Salehi discusses the significance of the massive funeral processions mourning Ayatollah Khamenei

TEHRAN - Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the late Leader of the Islamic Revolution, was laid to rest in the holy shrine of Imam Reza in the city of Mashhad on July 9, four months after he was assassinated in a U.S.-Israeli strike on his residence. The attack also claimed the lives of several of his family members, including his 18-month-old granddaughter.

By Sahar Dadjoo

Iran's Hormuz leverage is a "genuine asymmetric equaliser" no other card can match: Italian analyst

Boltuc says raising perceived shipping risk alone is enough to move markets, pressure Trump ahead of the midterms

TEHRAN – In an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times, Silvia Boltuc, an Italian geopolitical analyst and Managing Director of Special Eurasia, examines the collapse of the US-Iran memorandum after Washington's July strikes.

By Shahrokh Saei 

Wall Street veteran Mir Mohammad Alikhan: ‘Ayatollah Khamenei’s martyrdom united the Muslim world’

TEHRAN - Mir Mohammad Alikhan, an internationally renowned investment banker and Wall Street veteran who traveled to Tehran for the funeral of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, described the massive public mourning as an unprecedented global turning point.

"A Martyr Never Dies": Brazilian cartoonist reflects on illustrating Iran's supreme leader

Carlos Latuff says the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei will strengthen, not intimidate, the Iranian people

TEHRAN – Carlos Latuff has spent more than three decades documenting the Middle East through the lens of political cartooning, becoming one of the most widely shared and reproduced satirists covering US and Israeli policy in the region. Speaking to the Tehran Times following the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei in coordinated US-Israeli strikes, Latuff reflects on the moment he learned the news, why he chose to center his response on the Supreme Leader himself, and how decades of drawing Iran have shaped his view of Western media coverage.

By Afshin Majlesi

War, memory and the race to save a civilization

An interview with Dr. Jebrael Nokandeh, Director of the National Museum of Iran

TEHRAN – What happens when one of the world's oldest civilizations is confronted with the realities of modern warfare? How do museums prepare for conflict, protect irreplaceable artifacts, and respond when cultural institutions come under threat? And what lessons have museum professionals learned from navigating these extraordinary challenges?

By Samaneh Aboutalebi

Art installation in Minab becomes symbol of collective remembrance

TEHRAN- In the aftermath of the tragedy at Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, a striking artistic intervention transformed the damaged site into a powerful visual reminder of loss, memory, and resilience. The installation, known as “Red Butterflies”, was conceived and executed by the Architecture Center of the Art Bureau, under the direction of architect Mostafa Momeni-Rad, as an effort to preserve public attention on the victims and ensure that the tragedy would not fade from collective memory. 

By Sahar Dadjoo

Starmer's Iran policy left Britain complicit in Washington's wars, says British activist

Stephen Bell says the PM prioritized US interests while abandoning Britain's independent diplomatic role.

TEHRAN - Stephen Bell, Treasurer of the Stop the War Coalition and a longtime anti-imperialist activist, believes the recent US-Israeli war against Iran has exposed the limits of Western military coercion while intensifying public opposition to interventionist policies. 

By Sahar Dadjoo

Iran war changing public perception shaped by Western media, says S. Korean scholar

TEHRAN – For more than three decades, Professor Yu Dal-seung has devoted his academic career to studying Iran. As head of the Department of Persian Language and Iranian Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), he has introduced generations of South Korean students to Persian language, literature, history, and political thought. Few scholars in South Korea possess a deeper familiarity with Iranian society, and fewer still describe Iran as their "second homeland."

Iran war accelerated decline of US global dominance, says ex-Pentagon analyst

Karen Kwiatkowski says the war hastened a new regional order

TEHRAN - Karen U. Kwiatkowski, the retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and former Pentagon analyst, believes the recent U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has accelerated the decline of American global dominance while strengthening the emergence of a multipolar regional order. 

Russia’s envoy tells Tehran Times:

New joint nuclear projects in discussion 

TEHRAN – Russia is seen as one of Iran’s most important allies, which naturally makes Tehran’s relationship with Moscow during the recent U.S.-Israeli war against Iran especially significant. This is particularly true amid ongoing tensions with Washington and in light of the many potential challenges that may emerge in the future.

By Mona Hojat Ansari 

‘The street belongs to the people’

Author and cultural expert explains the social unity that emerged in Iran after US–Israeli invasion

TEHRAN – In the weeks following the U.S.–Israeli invasion of Iran, an unexpected social phenomenon began to take shape across the country. Night after night, in cities large and small, people gathered in streets and public squares. What began as spontaneous assemblies gradually turned into vigils that continued for more than one hundred consecutive nights despite security risks, air‑raid warnings, and even occasional attacks.

By Silvina Pachelo

Argentine lawyer from Global Sumud Flotilla reports on torture of activists in Israeli detention

BUENOS AIRES — A member of the Global Sumud flotilla, Argentine lawyer and activist Victoria Pi de la Serra, describes an ordeal marked by violence, humiliation, and psychological torture. 

American soldiers need to refuse orders, says ex-US Marine on illegal war on Iran 

TEHRAN – In modern militaries, obedience to command is treated as the foundation of discipline. Yet this principle is not absolute. International law, as well as the domestic law of many countries, recognizes that a soldier’s duty is not only to follow orders but also to refuse those that are unlawful.

By Sajjad Amir-Yazdani

“The Sinners” and the cinematic anatomy of Trumpism

TEHRAN- At first glance, Trumpism appears to be a distinctly contemporary political phenomenon, inseparable from the personality, rhetoric, and political career of Donald Trump. Yet reducing Trumpism to a single individual risks overlooking the deeper social and historical forces that made it possible.

By Sahar Dadjoo

‘Iranian Red Crescent Society emerges as global humanitarian voice after 40-day war’

TEHRAN – As Iran grapples with the humanitarian consequences of the recent US-Israeli aggression, the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has found itself operating on multiple fronts simultaneously: rescuing civilians under fire, documenting violations of humanitarian law, coordinating global aid, and providing evidence of the war’s death toll to international institutions.

By Ali Hamedin

General Hollywood: Pentagon’s propaganda operation on silver screen: Part 2

TEHRAN-Sci-Fi cinema, and especially the superhero genre, presents an opportunity that the Pentagon would never pass up. Since these stories often contain military themes and are heavily dependent on action sequences, many superhero genre films have relied on military production assistance. Among these films are the first two installments of the "Iron Man" trilogy, the "Hulk", "Captain Marvel", and others.

By Ali Hamedin

General Hollywood: Pentagon’s propaganda operation on silver screen: Part 1

TEHRAN- “10 years from now you'll have Hollywood movies about how bombing an Iranian girls school made US soldiers sad.”

Iranian deputy FM tells Tehran Times:

‘Israeli crimes in Lebanon cannot occur without US green light’

TEHRAN - Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told the Tehran Times that Iran will take “proportionate” measures if Israel continues its strikes in Lebanon and blamed the United States for greenlighting the “Zionist regime’s crimes.”

Middle East power balance shifting after Iran war, says John Helmer

TEHRAN- As tensions between Iran and the United States continue to fluctuate between military signaling, sanctions pressure, and intermittent diplomatic messaging, questions remain over Washington’s strategy and the evolving balance of power in the Middle East. Following the 40-day war, analysts are debating whether recent developments reflect a structural shift or a temporary phase of managed escalation.

By Mona Hojat Ansari

'Cuba will fight if we must fight'

Cuban ambassador to Iran discusses US sanctions, potential war, and international inaction with the Tehran Times

TEHRAN – Cuba has faced a fate remarkably similar to Iran's in its encounters with the United States. Both nations are being punished simply for creating and preserving political and governing systems of their own choosing. Both have suffered heavy losses as a result of illegal U.S. sanctions and blockades. Now, it appears the two countries may once again face the same kind of U.S. behavior—this time on the battlefield.

Germany’s Iran war stance exposed deep contradictions in Berlin’s foreign policy, says analyst

Christoph Hörstel says German leaders acknowledge public anger over Israel’s actions but continue supporting Tel Aviv behind the scenes

TEHRAN – In this exclusive interview with Tehran Times, Christoph Hörstel, founder of the German political party Die Neue Mitte, political analyst and former journalist, examines the evolving strategic dynamics between the United States, Iran, and the Persian Gulf states in the event of a renewed regional conflict.

By Marzieh Kian 

A tale of a pen fighting on the battlefield: front line on a blank canvas

TEHRAN – When the siren wails across the city and the air in the media space becomes thick with the scent of war-news gunpowder, everyone picks up a weapon and stands at a corner of this vast front. One takes up a rifle; another adjusts their camera lens. And in this fray, there is an artist whose weapons are lines, colors, and meaningful, biting satires.

By Sahar Dadjoo

US military superiority fails to guarantee decisive outcome against Iran: Brazilian analyst

Lourival Sant’Anna highlights political constraints, energy shocks, and regional dynamics limiting Washington’s options

TEHRAN – In this exclusive interview with Tehran Times, Lourival Sant'Anna, Brazilian war correspondent, international affairs analyst for CNN Brasil, and columnist for Estadão, examines the strategic, political, and geopolitical dimensions of the recent US-Israel aggression against Iran.