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LONDON The board game is roughly 4,500 years old. Shaped like a bird of prey, it has holes running down its wings and chest, where the pieces were once positioned. Its one of a few dozen ancient objects that were set to travel from the National Museum of Iran for a spectacular exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum here. But they never came.

Other artifacts that were set to be shown as detailed and illustrated and in the catalog for that exhibition Epic Iran included a gold mask, a long-handled silver pan and a carved stone goblet. To secure the loans, the museum was in longstanding talks with the National Museum of Iran until early 2020, said Tristram Hunt, the director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, also known as the V&A.

At a certain point, silence began to descend, and I dont think that was internal to them, he said in an interview. There were outside political forces.

Ironically, the overarching purpose of Epic Iran, according to Hunt, was to put aside the political tensions that have dogged relations between Iran and the West since the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of an Islamic Republic.

We want people to take a step back and understand that Iranian history didnt begin in 1979, he said. The point was to look beyond the paradigm of what is called Islamic fundamentalism, and concerns around nuclear testing and visions of the ayatollah, he added, and understand the richness, and breadth, and depth, and complexity, and beauty of Iran.

On display in the V&A show, which runs through Sept. 12, are an astounding array of artworks and treasures spanning 5,000 years: from the remnants of the earliest civilizations to the creations of contemporary artists living in Iran today. The full gamut of arts and crafts practiced for millenniums in Iran is illustrated with centuries-old carpets, illuminated manuscripts, miniature paintings, sculpted ornaments, court portraits and fine textiles.

More broadly, hostilities between Iran and the West were exacerbated during the presidency of Donald Trump. He pulled the United States out of a 2015 deal to curb Irans nuclear capability, toughened economic sanctions against Iran and ordered the killing in January 2020 of Irans most powerful security and intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

Cultural collaborations between Iran and the West have suffered as a result, said Nima Mina, who taught Iranian studies for 20 years at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

In post-Revolution Iran, everything has been politicized, he said. Cultural institutions and artists had to align with a certain ideological and political agenda, as artists did in the Soviet Union, he said.

The Islamic Republic is an ideological, autocratic regime, so its difficult to be apolitical, even if somebody tries, he said.

The V&A is not the only Western museum to try and fail to secure loans from Iran. In 2016, a long-planned Berlin exhibition of works from the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art was canceled when Iranian officials withheld export permits for the works. Half of these were by Western artists such as Picasso, Gauguin, Mark Rothko and Francis Bacon, and came from a collection assembled before the revolution by Irans empress, Farah Pahlavi.

Originally, the V&A under its former director, Martin Roth had planned to exhibit the private collection of the Sarikhanis, a British-based family from Iran who own hundreds of pieces of Iranian art and heritage. When Mr. Hunt took over the V&A in February 2017, he decided to turn the exhibition into something broader and more extensive, incorporating treasures from the collections of the V&A and other international museums.

One of the most important objects in the show has been lent to the V&A by the British Museum: the Cyrus Cylinder, a small clay tube from the sixth century B.C. that Cyrus the Great, the Persian Empires founder, buried under the walls of Babylon after he conquered it. Etched in cuneiform the writing of the ancient Babylonians the Cyrus Cylinder was a charter for good governance in which Cyrus pledged not to rule by oppression and dictatorship and tyranny, said the exhibitions co-curator, John Curtis, the British Museums former keeper of the Middle East department.

What the cylinder demonstrates is that Iran was a land of religious tolerance, and that it had enlightened rulers two and a half thousand years ago. The British Museum included it in a popular 2005 exhibition, Forgotten Empire, which also aimed to open Western minds to the countrys ancient culture and history.

That show received a very important loan from the National Museum of Iran: a silver tablet documenting the foundation of Persepolis, the Persian Empires capital city. The tablet traveled to London in the face of quite considerable press comments and complaints that the British couldnt be trusted to return them, said Neil MacGregor, the British Museums director at the time. In return, Iran asked to borrow the Cyrus Cylinder, which traveled to Iran in 2010, amid trepidation in London that it might never come back. (Those fears were unfounded: The priceless object was returned.)

As well as artifacts from Irans past, two rooms of Epic Iran on modern and contemporary art show that Iranians were active participants in 20th-century art movements, and today produce cutting-edge photography, painting and installations.

The high ratio of female artists on display including the photographers Shadi Ghadirian and Shirin Aliabadi demonstrates that Iranian women have transcended gender inequality and restrictions such as the compulsory veil to produce and display their work.

This final section of the show put together by the associate curator Ina Sarikhani Sandmann, whose family lent extensively to the exhibition also coincides with the most recent period in Iranian history, a period of revolution and still-raw divisions. Wall texts seem to reflect those tensions.

They refer to the monarchys authoritarian rule, its ties to economically exploitative Western powers, and its self-aggrandizing attempts to channel Irans pre-Islamic past, which incited dissent and led to the revolution. Post-revolutionary Iran, on the other hand, is described as being isolated and attempting to open up to the rest of the world despite hard line domestic policies and international economic sanctions.

The choice of words in reference to the Islamic Republic is very cautious, said Mina, the academic. He said it was probably out of a desire not to jeopardize Iran-based artists participating in the show. As a rule, painters, photographers, filmmakers, and sculptors in general had to be loyal, conformist, or at least not challenge the government to continue their art practice, he said.

Despite the loan setbacks, Hunt, the V&A director, said he hoped the show would pave the way to collaborations: The exhibition was always intended as a two-way exchange, he said.

It would always be nice to have a relationship with Tehran, which wed like to build on in the future, he added.

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Looking Beyond the Ayatollah to the Treasures of Iran - The New York Times

Reports that two Iranian frigates may be steaming into the Atlantic toward Venezuela ought to concentrate minds in the Biden Administration. So much for Iranian goodwill amid President Bidens determination to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal.

The vessels destination isnt clear, and they could still turn back. But when asked by reporters on Monday about U.S. monitoring of the frigates, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said Iran has constant presence in international waters, is entitled to this right on the basis of international law, and can be present in international waters. He added: I warn that nobody should make a miscalculation. Those who live in glass houses must be cautious.

Irans navy isnt the U.S. Sixth Fleet, but the entry of warships into Caribbean waters would be a notable provocation. If it sails into these waters without resistance, a precedent will be set for adversarial navies operating in the region. Dont be surprised if Russia and China decide to join the party in the future.

Iran is a long-time Cuban ally, and since Hugo Chvez turned Venezuela into a dictatorship 20 years ago, Tehran has nurtured an ever-closer relationship with Caracas. The two regimes have engaged in joint defense ventures in the Venezuelan state of Aragua, and Venezuela is known to supply fake identities to Iranian operatives to move around the region.

Venezuelas point man for Iran is Tareck El Aissami, now oil minister. Iran is an essential energy supplier for the South American basket case, where domestic gasoline production has collapsed amid a shortage of resources, maintenance failures and corruption.

Read more:
Irans Navy Heads to the Americas - The Wall Street Journal

The two countries both of them facing severe U.S. sanctions have developed closer ties over the last few years, with cooperation ranging from gasoline shipments to joint car and cement factory projects.

Senior officials in President Nicols Maduros government in Caracas have been advised that welcoming the Iranian warships would be a mistake, according to a person familiar with the discussions. But its not clear whether Maduro has heeded that warning: At one point on Thursday, U.S. military officials understood the ships had turned around, but as of Friday morning they were still steaming south, one of the people said.

Lawmakers privy to the most sensitive intelligence information were informed over the past few days that the U.S. believed the Iranian ships may be heading toward Venezuela, but cautioned that the destination could change, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The mere presence of Iranian warships in Americas backyard would represent a challenge to U.S. authority in the region and would likely inflame the debate in Washington over President Joe Bidens decision to re-open negotiations with Tehran.

Iranian media has claimed the 755-foot long Makran, which was commissioned this year, can serve as a platform for electronic warfare and special operations missions, and Iranian officials have boasted of the ships missile and weapons capabilities. It is able to carry six to seven helicopters, as well as drones, they have said.

A spokesperson for the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry declined to comment. A spokesperson at the Iranian Mission to the U.N. declined to comment. And White House and Pentagon spokespersons declined to comment.

The timing of Irans apparent westward foray is especially inopportune for those hoping for a lowering of tensions with Tehran.

Since entering office, Biden has explored rejoining the 2015 agreement to curb Irans nuclear program, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which his predecessor Donald Trump abandoned in 2018. Those talks are ongoing in Vienna. The recent fighting between Israel and the militant group Hamas, long backed by Iran, also has fueled criticism from Republican lawmakers about the wisdom of re-entering the JCPOA.

Successive governments in Tehran and Caracas have made a habit of defying the United States, with whom each country has a complex history. The Venezuelan government was one of the first to recognize the Islamic Republic after the 1979 overthrow of the shah, a U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Tehran regularly objects to the presence of U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf region, and it has previously threatened to make a similar show of force in Americas backyard but never followed through.

Maduros authoritarian regime has been shunned by many countries, including its Latin American neighbors. The United States has imposed successively harsher rounds of sanctions that have punished an economy already wracked by mismanagement, corruption and Covid. Iran is one of Venezuelas few close allies.

As Venezuelas oil refining sector has collapsed in recent years, the Islamic Republic has sent multiple fuel tankers to the country to help with crippling gas shortages. In exchange, Venezuelas government has supplied Tehran with much-needed cash and helped it build relationships in Latin America.

U.S. officials have watched those ties blossom with varying levels of concern.

In December, the top commander of U.S. troops in Central and South America described Irans growing military presence in Venezuela as alarming. In comments reported by The Wall Street Journal, Adm. Craig Faller, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, said the presence of personnel from Irans elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force is particularly concerning.

The Trump administration designated the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization in 2019, and killed its Quds Force commander, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, last year in an airstrike in Iraq.

Last summer, U.S. authorities seized four ships carrying cargo from Iran to Venezuela, as the Journal reported. At one point on their journey, those ships and five others were traveling with an Iranian naval intelligence ship, U.S. officials told the paper. The ships did not reach Venezuela.

More:
U.S. monitoring Iranian warships that may be headed to Venezuela - POLITICO

Iran will put a French citizen that it detained last year on trial on charges including espionage, his lawyer said on Sunday, a crime that can carry the death penalty.

The French citizen, Benjamin Brire, who is in his mid-30s, was arrested in Iran in May 2020 on suspicion of flying a drone and taking photographs in a prohibited area. Saeid Dehghan, a human rights lawyer who represents him, said on Twitter on Sunday that Iranian prosecutors had confirmed his client would be tried on two counts of espionage and propaganda against the system.

The prosecutor is preparing the indictment and sending it to the revolutionary court, Mr. Dehghan told the French news agency Agence France-Presse.

In the years since President Donald J. Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal with the country and reimposed sanctions, Iran has detained several foreigners and dual citizens.

Iran frequently uses such cases as diplomatic bargaining chips or to press for the release of Iranian prisoners abroad. In March last year, the French government secured the release of an academic who had been held on national security charges, Roland Marchal, as part of a prisoner swap.

Mr. Brires lawyer said in March that his client was facing a propaganda charge because he asked in a social media post why head scarves were required for women in Iran but optional in some other predominantly Muslim countries.

A conviction for propaganda can carry a jail term of three months to one year. Espionage can be punishable by death in Iran; Mr. Dehghan, the lawyer, told the BBC in March that Mr. Brire was at risk of a long prison sentence if convicted.

His sister, Blandine Brire, described the charges against her brother as groundless and said he was just a French tourist in Iran.

To mark the anniversary of Mr. Brires detention on May 26, the French weekly Le Point published an open letter from Ms. Brire to President Emmanuel Macron of France, making a desperate appeal for his help.

Mr. President, its after a long year of waiting, of worrying and of incomprehension that I write to you, to call on you to help free Benjamin who is today cut off from his own life, from those who love him, and from the rest of the world, Ms. Brire wrote on Facebook, echoing the letter.

One year that Benjamin, and we, his loved ones, have gone through hell, Ms. Brire said, describing the Iranian authorities as deliberately obfuscating the case. We are powerless, facing a scenario as unreal as it is incomprehensible, she added.

The French foreign ministry said in March that Mr. Brire, who is being held in the Vakilabad prison in the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, was entitled to consular protection and that its embassy in Tehran was in regular contact with him.

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Iran Will Try French Citizen on Spying Charges - The New York Times

The leadership of Iran, engaged in a long shadow war with Israel on land, air and sea, did not try to conceal the pleasure it took in the most recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Over the 11 days of fighting this month, Tehran praised the damage being done to its enemy, and the state news media and conservative commentators highlighted Irans role in providing weaponry and military training to Palestinian militants in Gaza to hammer Israeli communities.

Iran has for decades supported Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza and whose own interests in battling Israel align with Irans. Experts say that over the years, Iran has provided Hamas with financial and political support, weapons and technology and training to build its own arsenal of advanced rockets that can reach deep into Israeli territory.

But in the assessment of Israeli intelligence, Hamas made its decisions independently of Iran in the latest conflict.

In the past year, Israel orchestrated a string of covert attacks on Iran, including the sabotaging of Irans nuclear facilities. While Irans leaders have made no secret of their desire to punish Israel for the wave of attacks, they have struggled to find an effective way to retaliate without risking an all-out war or derailing any chance for a revised nuclear accord with the United States and other world powers.

So the conservative factions in Iran that had been urging payback for the Israeli strikes seized on a chance to portray the thousands of rockets fired by the Gaza militants as revenge.

The Gaza war woke up Israel to the fact that war with Iran means Israel getting plowed, Gheis Ghoreishi, a political analyst who has advised Irans foreign ministry on Arab affairs, wrote on Twitter.

One analyst in Israel suggested that Irans leadership believes that the new military capabilities displayed by the militants in Gaza during the conflict, in both quantity and range of rockets, might make Israel think twice before launching its next covert strike.

Iran viewed the rocket attacks as re-establishing deterrence for further Israeli attacks on its soil, said Meir Javedanfar, a political analyst in Tel Aviv who teaches Iranian security studies at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.

But Israels foreign ministry spokesman, Lior Haiat, said this month that he had no intelligence connecting Iran to a role in the recent crisis.

Iran does not reveal the details of how it arms Palestinian militants. But Mr. Ghoreishi said Tehran had provided Hamas and another smaller Palestinian militant group in Gaza, the Islamic Jihad, with blueprint technology and training for how to domestically build an arsenal of advanced rockets with a range to target all of Israels territory.

Fabian Hinz, an independent expert on Irans military, said Iran had in the past sent to Gaza key components of the rockets that were fired at Israel and taught Palestinians to become resourceful in securing raw material locally. Militants have learned from Iranian experts how to use water pipes and how to repurpose unexploded shells to build up their artillery, he said.

But analysts said smuggling Iranian-made weapons and rockets into Gaza was extremely difficult because of a strict land and sea blockade enforced by Israel. Iran was able to transfer military hardware and components for building rockets through underground tunnels connecting Gaza to Egypt for a brief time after the Arab Spring of 2011. But analysts said that the current Egyptian government had cracked down on the route.

While Irans hard-liners may have been eager for retribution, public opinion within the country is far from monolithic when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many do not see the Palestinian struggle as their fight and oppose the governments funneling millions of dollars to an array of proxy militant groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen that could be used to address urgent economic problems at home.

No to Gaza, no to Lebanon, my life for Iran has been a popular slogan chanted every time protests against the government arise.

Our own people are being crushed by inflation, sanctions and coronavirus, said Maryam, a 51-year-old who works in the hospitality business and did not want her last name published for fear of retaliation by the Iranian authorities. Why doesnt our government resolve the problems of Iranians instead of worrying about Palestinians?

The rockets that were fired into Israel killed 12 people and sowed terror across much of the country. But they also invited a devastating response from Israels vastly superior military, whose airstrikes killed scores of militants, destroyed 340 rocket launchers and caused the collapse of 60 miles of underground tunnels.

While the Israeli strikes may temporarily set back the military capability of Irans Gaza allies, Israels international standing does seem to be taking a beating with cracks in the once rock-solid support of Western allies.

Iran watched in dismay last year as four Arab countries the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalized ties with Israel and declared Iran the biggest threat to regional stability. In the months before the Gaza fighting, Tehran lobbied intensely to prevent other Arab countries from following suit.

Then Israels airstrikes in Gaza killed at least 230 Palestinians, including 65 children, according to Palestinian officials. The assault also displaced more than 77,000 civilians. The heavy toll, which outraged Arab public opinion, could dim the prospects of any more countries in the region normalizing relations with Israel anytime soon.

The wrecked civilian infrastructure in Gaza could also give Iran a chance to bolster its influence once again through aid for rebuilding efforts.

On Friday, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, commended Palestinians for their battle against Israel and said all Muslim nations must assist Palestinians with military development, with financial developments.

On the newly popular social-networking app Clubhouse, hundreds of Iranian conservatives and members of the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps rejoiced when rockets from Gaza penetrated Israels Iron Dome defense system and hit civilian neighborhoods.

They celebrated the violent clashes erupting across Israeli cities between Jewish and Arab residents. And they felt that the Israeli strikes on Iran, including the assassinations of a top nuclear scientist and a leader of Al Qaeda, had been at least partly avenged.

It feels like we had rage stuck in our throats against Israel, especially after the assassinations. And with every rocket fired, we gave a collective, deep sigh of relief, said Mehdi Nejati, 43, an industrial project manager in Tehran who moderated a daily Clubhouse chat on developments in Gaza.

There was also much boasting on social media about Irans role in enabling militants to amass more advanced rockets.

While Israel will have to continue to contend with Irans influence in Gaza going forward, Tehrans support for the militants there is just one of the many factors standing in the way of a longer-term peace, said Mr. Javedanfar, the political analyst.

Confronting Iran is only going to be part of the solution for Israels challenge in Gaza, he said. A bigger part of the challenge can be solved with smarter Israeli policies in Jerusalem.

Read more:
Iran, a Longtime Backer of Hamas, Cheers Attacks on Israel ...