Middle East & North Africa

After years of sanctions and deadlocked talks, the January 2014 launch of an interim nuclear agreement between Iran and the E3/EU+3 promises to improve relations. But a deal that would satisfy the international community’s concerns over Iran’s nuclear program and at the same time allow the country to shed its pariah status is by no means guaranteed. At the DGAP, Marietje Schaake, Bernd Erbel, and Cornelius Adebahr discussed the EU’s Iran approach and the prospect of reaching long-term agreement.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, continues his country’s ongoing communication campaign. After speaking at the Munich Security Conference, he stopped by the DGAP on February 3, to give a speech and answer questions from the audience. Zarif sought to parry concerns about his country’s nuclear activities, stating that nuclear arms would not be in Iran’s interest. Quite the contrary, they would undermine Iran’s security and its role in the region.

Twenty young researchers, media practitioners, policy makers, and civil society representatives from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, and Europe gathered for the 19th New Faces conference in Rabat on November 15–17, 2013 to discuss current developments in the areas of media and freedom of expression. Four plenary sessions featured experts such as historian Maâti Monjib (Mohammed V University, Rabat) and the journalist and media expert Fatima el-Issawi (LSE).