Iran remains the Middle East's dangerous tinderbox

UNDER PRESSURE from Western sanctions, Iran is actively in search of new international trade and investment partners, and it has made some progress.

- IAN BREMMER

In particular, a Chinese-brokered deal to normalize relations with regional rival Saudi Arabia has created commercial opportunities, and its willingness to provide Russia with drones and ammunition for use in Ukraine has created new openings too. It also helps Iran's government that the nationwide surge of protests that followed the death in police custody last September of a young woman arrested for wearing her headscarf too loosely has largely died down, thanks mainly to the willingness of authorities to arrest large numbers of people and to execute a handful of them publicly.