The Iran Crisis

A debate with Michael Rubin (Washington) and Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh (Berlin) about the current situation in Iran and the nuclear conflict.

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Invitation: The Iran crisis


A debate with Michael Rubin (Washington) and Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh (Berlin) about the current situation in Iran and the nuclear conflict.

Thursday, May 24, 2012, 7.00 pm.

Robert-Koch-Saal, Dorotheenstr. 96, 10117 Berlin.

The day after the crucial next round of nuclear talks in Baghdad on May 23 will be the right time to look at the results of the international Iran policy and to discuss some hard questions. Can the current strategy of diplomacy and sanctions achieve a peaceful solution for the nuclear conflict and other issues, or is an escalating confrontation with Tehran inevitable? What are the effects of sanctions on the Iranian regime, the economy and the population? How united or divided are the EU, the US and Israel when it comes to preventing a nuclear Iran? What would be the consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran or a military strike against the Iranian nuclear facilities? And is there a realistic chance for regime change in Iran – either by a popular uprising or by splits inside the regime? We invite you to discuss these and other questions with two internationally renowned experts.

Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research area is the Middle East, with a special focus on Iran, Syria, Arab Politics, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Turkey. He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. He regularly instructs senior military officers deploying to the Middle East on regional politics, and teaches Iranian history, culture, and politics onboard U.S. aircraft carriers. Rubin has lived in the Islamic Republic of Iran and is editor of the daily newsletter Iran News Round Up that provides translations from Iranian media. He is currently completing a history of U.S. diplomacy with rogue regimes.

Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh is a German-Iranian political scientist and one of the most knowledgeable experts on the Iranian regime in Germany. He is a Senior Fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy and has written extensively about Iran in major German and international media. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh has just published the study “The Islamist Totalitarianism. About Anti-Semitism, Anti-Bahaism, Persecution of Christians and gender-specific Apartheid in the ‘Islamic Republic of Iran’”.

Event in English!

A Berlin Middle East Talk (B'EMET) by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin (MFFB).