What's happening between the U.S. and Iran?

Occupied Thoughts

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with analyst Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute about Iran and the U.S. Their conversation spans from exploring decision-making authority and processes in Iran to the impact that U.S. sanctions have on ordinary people in Iran, where poverty has risen dramatically. They speak in depth about the regional and economic dynamics that may have primed Iran for a deal with the United States, including a growing recognition about both the potential and limits on what Russia and China can provide, and the possibility that President Trump will break with DC orthodoxy to make a deal. Trita Parsi is the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute. He is an award-winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has authored four books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel. His first book, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (Yale University Press, 2007), won the silver medal winner of the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. His second book, A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran (Yale University Press, 2012) and was selected by Foreign Affairs as the Best Book of 2012 on the Middle East. Parsi’s latest book – Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2017) – reveals the behind the scenes story to the nuclear deal with Iran. Parsi was born in Iran but moved with his family at the age of four to Sweden in order to escape political repression in Iran. His father was an outspoken academic who was jailed by the Shah and then by the Ayatollah. He moved to the United States as an adult and studied foreign policy at Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies where he received his PhD under Francis Fukuyama and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a 2025 Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.