This year, with respect to the Iranian regime and its domestic and foreign policy, several major developments must be watched closely, as they will have implications for the broader Middle East.

The Iranian regime could never have expected that the year 2020 would be one of the worst it has had to endure since the Iran-Iraq War.

Although Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claims his job is not to interfere in government affairs unless the survival of the Islamic Republic is at risk, he is already intervening in the country’s presidential election, which is still almost six months away.

Although six world powers (the US, the UK, Russia, France, China and Germany) were parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions, the two major players were, and still are, Iran and the US. 

The Iranian regime is confident that the next US administration will rejoin the nuclear deal. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani recently said that he had “no doubt” about a pending return to the status quo under American President-elect Joe Biden.

Now that the electoral college has affirmed Joe Biden’s election as the next US President, the White House is probably going to resurrect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly called the Iran nuclear deal.

The level of domestic oppression has reached a new high in Iran, as the regime increasingly resorts to brute force to suppress dissidents and those who criticize its actions.