Ali Vaez
Iranian-American analyst, director of the Iran Project and deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the International Crisis Group, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
Ali Vaez did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsSo, obviously, these sort of exchanges are a necessary condition to avoid war - but far from sufficient.
- 8 days earlier
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Their wordsAs we brace for war, it’s important to remember that Washington and Israel can bomb Iran into ruins, but not into submission
- 1 day earlier
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Their wordsLeaders contemplating an Oct surprise or an offensive after the midterms must remember that military force may alter the balance of pain without resolving the disputes they’ll eventually have to confront across the negotiating table.
- 3 months earlier
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Our reading
The 2026 leaks on Iran were designed to push escalation and close off any path back to diplomacy.
Their wordsThe timing of these leaks is no accident. They appear designed to prompt more escalation to foreclose any pathway back to diplomacy and lock both sides into a conflict that becomes not a means to an end, but a forever war.
- 6 weeks earlier
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Their wordsPOTUS is about to realize that the people who cheered him on loudest in starting this war will assail him, his team, the mediators and everyone else for getting a deal, whatever its terms, to end it.
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsDC's Iran hawks got two wars, nearly every conceivable sanction designation, a blockade, threw a wrench in global economy and will still claim that just a little more pressure and a touch more bombing will magically yield the concessions they still won't be satisfied with.
- 13 days earlier
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Our reading
Netanyahu is the last person anyone should trust for solutions to Iran's enriched-uranium stockpile.
Their wordsThe last person anyone should trust for solutions is him
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsTracking US-Iran talks for better part of two decades: Breakthroughs aren't irreversible, stalemates aren't unbreakable, each side thinks it's reasonable and the other isn't, nothing is agreed until everything agreed, and if you get that far you still need implementation.
- 6 weeks earlier
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Our reading
The US-Israeli war on Iran that began in February 2026 is a war of choice, not necessity.
Their wordsThe U.S. and Israel initiated strikes on Iran without a direct, imminent threat. That makes this a discretionary conflict, and history shows wars of choice often come with long, unpredictable tails.
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Their wordsIf Hezbollah fully engages from Lebanon, if militias strike U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, or if the Houthis escalate in the Red Sea, this stops being a bilateral conflict and becomes a region-wide war stretching across the Middle East.