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“Just 42 percent of Iranians voted in the country’s latest parliamentary elections,” which is “the lowest percentage ever recorded” in the Islamic Republic’s 41 years — and even that number is likely “inflated.” The “lackluster showing” should be no surprise: Two years of “persistent protests” indicate a population “profoundly disaffected with the country’s clerical regime,” and the “accidental Jan. 8 downing of a Ukrainian airliner” convinced “many Iranians that their government is dangerously incompetent.”

Saudi Arabia is in the throes of a monumental transition. This shift, set in motion by Vision 2030,” the signature initiative of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has expanded since the Vision’s formal launch in 2016 to touch upon virtually every aspect of life within the Kingdom. 

The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement on Feb. 29 that includes the possible eventual withdrawal of all American and other NATO forces from Afghanistan by next year contingent on the Taliban upholding commitments such as holding talks with the Afghan government.

Iran was an early COVID-19 hot spot, Ilan Berman notes at Radio Farda, yet the “depths of the Iranian regime’s coronavirus crisis remain the subject of heated debate.” The authorities claim that after some 3,800 fatalities, the worst is past; President Hassan Rouhani has floated April 18 as a ­reopen date. 

“The situation in Iran is dire” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But in the short run Iran’s health crisis may strengthen the ruling ayatollahs’ grip on power, said Ilan Berman, senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council. In the long run, the effects of the illness could stimulate a shift in power, though not necessarily toward a less dictatorial regime.