Jonathan Schanzer

Seems like Russia and Iran have been comparing notes on beating American sanctions. On today’s @FDD Morning Brief, @PeterBDoran and I discuss how Russia and Iran turned pressure into practice. x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Serious escalation here

From my recent appearance on @afpc's Great Power Podcast with @ilanberman 🎙️ Full episode here: apple.co/4uHsIYV

ICYMI: Here's today's FDD Morning Brief headline rundown 🗞️ 🎙️ Full episode here: bit.ly/4uIZxVk

@BrentNagtegaal What’s a meter? 😂😉

@JSchanzer It's 350 meters from the southwest corner of the Temple Mount.

Iranian missile just landed in old city of Jerusalem. Guessing about a half mile from Dome of the Rock. The regime is officially unhinged.

The pace of missile launches out of Iran toward Israel is significantly more intense compared to previous days

What kind of mental gymnastics are people engaging in to convince themselves this is anything other than an organized foreign operation?

The U.S. has spent decades sanctioning Russia & Iran. Both have spent decades mastering evasion. On today’s FDD Morning Brief, @JSchanzer & @PeterBDoran discuss what it will take for Washington to regain the upper hand. x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Two related news items about academics with links to Qatar 1️⃣ I was previously publicly attacked by Andreas Krieg, who accused me of being an extended arm of the United Arab Emirates in Sweden. The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) and the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency were also drawn into these unfounded allegations on the website Politics Today (published by SETA, which is affiliated with Erdoğan’s think tank). (Krieg has been linked to academic institutes in Qatar.) I reported this to King’s College London for defamation—and I was upheld in the internal process. The outcome was that Andreas Krieg published a public apology addressed to me on X. I later wrote about this in Swedish daily Expressen:  expressen.se/debatt/tro-och…  Andreas Krieg’s apology can be found here. x.com/MagnusRanstorp…  Now, the same Andreas Krieg has once again come under scrutiny. In legal proceedings in Northern Ireland, he lost a defamation case against a well-known journalist, further raising questions about his credibility and judgment. irishlegal.com/articles/paul-…  ⸻ 2️⃣ In the next step, activists turned to Farid Hafez, editor of the European Islamophobia Report and affiliated with the Georgetown University Bridge Initiative. The Bridge Initiative subsequently published a so-called “factsheet” targeting me, Lorenzo Vidino, the Danish professor Thomas Hoffmann, and researcher Sameh Egyptson. The purpose was obvious: to discredit us for our scrutiny of the Muslim Brotherhood. Article in Danish about ”Bridge Initiative and Factsheets” weekendavisen.dk/samfund/broder…  This activity has now been noted at the highest political level in the United States. A report from the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce on antisemitism at American universities specifically identifies the Bridge Initiative. The report states that the organization presents itself as researching Islamophobia, but in practice engages in casting suspicion on critics of political Islam. Particularly noteworthy is that the report—based on previously undisclosed documents from Georgetown—shows that the Bridge Initiative received $630,000 from Qatar in May 2024. The report can be read here. edworkforce.house.gov/news/documents…  The overall picture is clear: when academia, activism, and state interests converge, research risks becoming a tool for political influence—rather than a source of independent knowledge.

Sad, funny, outrageous.

Erdoğan’s anti-Israel rhetoric continues to escalate. Watching this space…. dailysabah.com/politics/diplo…

Lebanese politician Jebran Bassil: Hezbollah must realize that its military situation has ended naharnet.com/stories/en/319…

Iron Dome reservist soldier indicted for spying for Iran. And for a mere $1000 in crypto? Jeez. timesofisrael.com/iron-dome-rese…

Not just Kuwait. Now UAE dismantles Hezbollah-linked terror network, arrests members english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2026…

After reports that it no longer had the ability, Iran’s IRGC say missile production continues despite war english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-ea…

More Iranian IRGC commanders confirmed killed in US-Israel strikes english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-ea…

Some evening listening for ya! In this episode of GREAT POWER PODCAST, I talk to @JSchanzer of @FDD about how the war with Iran is reshaping the Middle East - and what it means for “great power competition” writ large. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gre…