THREAD: As protests continue and the rial tumbles, #Iran is increasingly seen as an economic basket case that has squandered its chance to join the ranks of the #BRICs. Here are 7 charts that challenge that view.
bourseandbazaar.com/articles/2018/… Back in January, I told @folha reporter @DiogoBercito that I saw parallels between the Brazilian protests that have been running since 2014 and those in Iran. In both contexts you hear calls to overthrow the government.
www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2018/01/…

1. A couple things that stick out about @FireEye's announcement regarding the discovery of an Iranian “influence operation” across websites, Facebook, and Twitter. This doesn't look like an Internet Research Agency type operation.
fireeye.com/blog/threat-re… 2. Let’s start with one of the primary websites identified as part of the network. Instituto Manquehue. You can check it out here: institutomanquehue.org

1. I spend a lot of my time thinking and writing about #Iran. This has a lot to do with meeting Dr. Ehsan Yarshater when I was a high school junior. I am so pleased with the news of a $10 million gift to secure his legacy.
news.columbia.edu/content/1983 2. Back in 2009, I had a vague idea that I wanted to go to @Columbia. Good school + New York seemed enough justification. But my grandmother recommended I go see Dr. Yarshater, an old friend, to learn more about the university.

1. I wanted to collect some of the years of reporting and writing that highlights why sanctions on #Iran are a sledgehammer, not a scalpel. The only certain outcome of sanctions is pain and suffering for ordinary people. Everything else is a gamble at best. Photo: @Newshaphoto 2. @jrezaian:"The next time an 'Iran expert' tells you that he supports the most crushing sanctions on the regime because they are the best way to support the Iranian people, be sure to ask him the last time he lived through something like this."
washingtonpost.com/news/global-op…

1. The #Trump administration would like us to believe its sanctions policy is about changing “the behavior of the leadership in #Iran to comport with what the Iranian people really want." Now we have the chance to test whether this is really true.
bloomberg.com/view/articles/… 2. As I write in @bopinion, #Iran has a new central bank governor, Abdolnasser Hemmati. He has a lot on his plate. A currency crisis exacerbated by sanctions fears took his predecessor down. The Central Bank of Iran is going to be placed under sanctions once again next week.

1. On Sunday, @SecPompeo will speak at an event to "support Iranian voices." Some in the Iranian-American community see the #Trump administration as allies in bringing secular democracy to #Iran.

As an Iranian-American, I find this so, so troubling.

lobelog.com/pompeo-religio… 2. Most proponents of regime change agree on a vision of #Iran as “a secular, parliamentary democracy" though they are light on specifics. There is something *totally wild* about casting Pompeo as an ally for any political movement that places secularism on a pedestal.

1. @Najmeh_Tehran, the journalist who wrote this piece, is immense. This is an issue she has been covering for years on the ground in #Tehran. You and colleagues at @FDD have cited her reporting in papers, briefings, and testimony. But let's put that aside for a second.

https://twitter.com/mdubowitz/status/1019991481443078145

2. Maybe we can find another source that's "capable of writing accurately." How about Ken Katzman, who @FDD has welcomed to its events as "a foremost expert on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and sanctions policy at Congress’ think tank, the Congressional Research Service."

1. So here is something most reports on the Friday July 6 #JCPOA Joint Commission meeting missed. #Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif made an unplanned trip back to Tehran the night before the foreign ministers' meeting on the nuclear deal. 2. Zarif was already in Vienna in the days leading up to the #JCPOA meeting as part of President Rouhani's official visit to Austria. Rouhani returned to Tehran on July 4 and the idea was that Zarif would stay on until Friday.

1. #Trump is using sanctions and an information war to exacerbate domestic crises and to incite turmoil in #Iran, edging ever closer to an overt policy of regime change.

But here is the reality: regime change is not an alternative to reform in Iran.

bloomberg.com/view/articles/… 2. The many different kinds of regime change proponents—from monarchists to Marxists—share the belief that if you just get rid of the “mullahs” in Iran, the country will be able to solve its persistent challenges—the water crisis, chronic unemployment, human rights failures etc.

1. In May, the US Treasury sanctioned the company that operates #Iran's presidential aircraft. Rouhani is flying to Europe today ahead of official visits to Switzerland + Austria. Will the recent sanctions designation have any impact on his journey?
bourseandbazaar.com/news-1/2018/7/… 2. Here is the story on the sanctions designation of Dena Airways and several Iranian aircraft in May. Notably, the presidential aircraft, an A340 with registration number EP-DAA, was not itself sanctioned.
bourseandbazaar.com/articles/2018/…

1. So #GroupB of the #WorldCup with #Spain, #Portugal, #Morocco and #Iran is the best group ever and we already know what will happen. You just need to look back to the turn of the 16th century and events that linked all of these countries (and Russia). History will repeat. 2. In 1578, at the Battle of Ksar El Kebir in Morocco, the young king of Portugal Sebastian I, who had allied with deposed Sultan Abu Abdallah Mohammed against usurper Abd Al-Malik I, died. The next in line, Cardinal Henry, also promptly died. A succession crisis followed.

[THREAD] In his #UNGA speech, #Trump claimed that “The good people of #Iran want change.” Our survey shows it's not the change he thinks. New polling by IranPoll/@BourseBazaar, shows support for an economic vision totally opposed to that espoused by #Trump in his speech.