Ariane Tabatabai is the Middle East fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an adjunct senior research fellow at Columbia University. She’s the author of No Conquest, No Defeat: Iran’s National Security Strategy.
Members of the Iranian armed forces pray around the coffin of slain nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh during the burial ceremony in Tehran, on Nov. 30.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech during the inaugural session of the new parliament following February elections, in Tehran on May 27.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs a document reinstating sanctions against Iran after announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal at the White House in Washington on May 8, 2018.
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump wearing “QAnon” t-shirts wait in line before a campaign rally at Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee, on Oct. 1, 2018.
Iranian mourners attend the funeral of Morteza Ebrahimi, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was killed during demonstrations against a surprise gasoline price hike, in Shahriar on Nov. 20.
Women wave a Lebanese national flag and Lebanese Shiite movement flags in front of portraits of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps march during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in Tehran on Sept. 22, 2018. (Stringer/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a roundtable discussion at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection National Targeting Center in Sterling, Virginia, on Feb. 2, 2018. (Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)
Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing on May 13, 2018. (THOMAS PETER/AFP/Getty Images)
