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GSN profiles eight candidates approved by Iran’s Guardian Council for the 14 June presidential election:
Mohammad Reza Aref, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mohammad Gharazi, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Rezaie, Hassan Rouhani, Ali Akbar Velayati

Official registration of candidates for Iran’s June presidential election will start in May, but the unofficial contest has already begun. By April, more than a dozen political figures had openly started putting together their election staff, and another 10 to 15 could potentially join them. But the large number of candidates belies the flattening of the political landscape since the civil unrest in 2009 and subsequent political repression, and reflects divisions within the conservative camp, rather than competing ideologies. “Some political parties will probably be compelled to nominate more than one candidate in order to satisfy the interests of all members,” one political source in Iran said. 


Iran’s oil ministry has announced it is issuing 29 new licences for the exploration and development of gas and oil fields, in a move apparently designed to wrest control of the industry away from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). With an undecided election just around the corner, the establishment is keen to strengthen its grip on an industry which has historically been used by interest groups seeking political power. 


Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr, the high-profile Shiite cleric who was arrested in Eastern Province in July, appeared in a special security court on 25 March as the case against him finally got under way. The prosecution’s list of charges against him, read out the following day, included “instigating unrest”, “seeking foreign meddling” and “supporting the rebellion in Bahrain”, according to AFP.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s February report on Iran said its stockpile of 20%-enriched uranium had risen to around 167kg, about 32kg more than the previous report in November, and not so far short of the 200-250kg which could, if further refined, make an atomic bomb.

Saudi Arabia has arrested 18 people it accuses of spying for a foreign country, including one Iranian, one Lebanese and 16 Saudis. On 19 March, the interior ministry said that the suspects had “gathered information on vital installations which they provided to the country” they had been working for, and that they would be handed over to judicial authorities.

US secretary of state John Kerry’s get-to-know-you tour of Europe and the Gulf spelled out the extent of the challenges facing US policy in President Barack Obama’s second term. Washington’s determination to ‘pivot toward Asia’ has grabbed the headlines, and the notion of loosening relationships with certain Gulf states might appeal.

Iran’s independent film-makers have long used art to criticise the country’s oppressive leadership, often to critical acclaim. But the government is fighting its own corner, too, seeking greater control of an industry whose western following it views as threatening

To mark the tenth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and to give wider public access to some of our reporting and analysis, GSN has unlocked the archive of its newsletters published in 2003 (accessible at www.gsn-online.com). The invasion was hardly a surprise; US determination to depose Saddam Hussein had been clear for months, but too little thought went into its repercussions. Few of those behind the invasion saw the potential for the turbulence it unleashed. A reading of pre-2003 GSN shows just how inevitable conflict was. ‘Global terrorism’ was high on the agenda as the George W Bush administration came to power.

Having seen Israel, and then Cyprus, fast-track plans to develop offshore hydrocarbon reserves in the East Mediterranean, Lebanon is eager to develop its portion of the Levant Basin, which the US Geological Survey estimates could contain 122tcf of gas and 1.7bn bbls of oil. In November, Beirut finally appointed a six member Petroleum Administration Board (PAB), charged with overseeing the tendering process, and in February, energy minister Gebran Bassil launched the prequalification round for companies looking to take part in the first exploration tender.

With just four months to go until Iran’s eleventh presidential elections, potential candidates to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are staking their camps ahead of polls seen as critical for a country that has slid deep into crisis. Launching his campaign to replace Ahmadinejad, Mohsen Rezaei, the former Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander turned politician, declared that the very survival of the Islamic Republic would depend on the performance of the next administration.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has warned against attempts to destabilise Yemen and threatened the possibility of measures including sanctions, after Sanaa, vocally backed by the United States, sent a formal request asking the council to look into the case of a ship seized in Yemeni waters that it says was carrying weapons made in Iran.

An attack on a camp for Iranian dissidents in Baghdad in the early hours of 9 February killed six people and wounded more than 25. Members of Iran’s Mojahedin-e Khalq – also known as the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) – are housed at the former US military base Camp Hurriya and, according to police sources, were subjected to more than a dozen Katyusha rockets.

The US Department of Defence estimates that between $100m and $200m is channelled from Iran directly to Hizbollah each year. But Iran’s motivation goes beyond supporting Hizbollah – much of its strategy in Lebanon appears geared to defending its interests, should Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad eventually fall.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, GSN has obtained the cost to the UK of running its embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions in the Gulf region. The following table shows the annual running cost of each mission in the financial year 2011/12, the last full financial year available. The figures include costs incurred by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on behalf of all UK government departments present at these posts.