The annual report of the Arabian Gulf Center for Iranian Studies, issued on Monday, included a comprehensive review on the latest developments in the Iranian scene and the behavior of the Iranian regime at the regional and international levels, particularly in Syria, Iraq and Yemen as well as details of the events and comprehensive information supported by illustrations of top stats.
In its three sections, the report tackles Iranian internal affairs and deals with its interactions with the Arab world as well as Iran's actions on an international level.
The first section is divided into five axes and focuses on the presidential elections, Hassan Rouhani’s victory in a new presidential term, his outcomes in the first months of his second term and the disruption of his electoral promises as well as a future vision presented by the Center's researchers on the future of Rouhani’s government.
The report also detects criticism against Iranian President by his reformist allies and subsequent disagreements over cabinet ministers and reports of Rouhani's transfer to the fundamentalist camp after securing a second term.
In another section, the report documents the verbal war between Rouhani and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei before explaining the nature of the differences between Rouhani and Chief of Justice Sadegh Larijani as well as his differences with the Revolutionary Guards.
It ends the first section with the recent protests and their mechanisms and consequences on the various forces within the regime, and this section explains the strategy adopted by the Iranian regime to contain these protests in addition to its international implications and future scenarios.
However, the section on the security situation in Iran addresses the first ISIS attack on the Iranian parliament and the most important positions of the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards.
It then addresses the positions of non-Persian nationals, mainly the files of Kurdistan, Ahwaz and Balochistan.
Militarily, the report deals with the conditions of the military institution in light of what is reported about the army's relationship with the IRGC and the government's position in regards to the military institution.
Economically, the report presents statistics and graphical analyses that illustrate the economic situation and its effects on decision-makers.
This includes the comparison of current indicators with past years such as growth rates, government budget performance, inflation trends, poverty, unemployment and standard of living.
In the social level, the report shows the situation of various sectors of Iran with the most important internal challenges such as poverty, unemployment, addiction and divorce.
Whereas on the level of Iran’s relations and what is related to Arab affairs, the report addresses these issues in four different axes.
The first axis includes Iran’s positions on the interactions of Arab foreign policy with the international and regional parties, especially the inter-Arab while the second axis tackles the support of the Iranian regime at various levels of the Houthi group in Yemen and the positions of Iran on the most prominent Yemeni developments in 2017.
The third axis addresses Iranian intervention in Syria and Iraq and the risks of Iranian hegemony, represented in supporting different groups and militias.
On the international level, the report tackles the prospects for US-Iranian relations a year after Trump's entry into the White House and tension between the two sides.
The second part in the international section talks about the relations between Tehran and Moscow and highlights the features of this cooperation in confronting the West and advancing relations between the two sides in military fields, nuclear and economic activities and the scenarios of this cooperation.
