Rolling Back Iran’s Foreign Legion

During a speech earlier this month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson identified “diminished“ Iranian influence in Syria as a top U.S. policy goal. To expand its sway in the region, Tehran has largely depended on local Shia militias that operate outside state control, threaten national institutions, and attempt to silence any public opposition -- as seen in the recent military court conviction against Hanin Ghaddar, an outspoken Lebanese journalist and Washington Institute fellow. Discussing what a rollback strategy against these militias might look like, the Institute hosted a Policy Forum with Ghaddar and Phillip Smyth marking the launch of its new report “Iran’s Foreign Legion.“ Hanin Ghaddar, the Institute’s Friedmann Visiting Fellow, has written for NOW News, An-Nahar, Al-Hayat, and other regional media, along with U.S. outlets such as the New York Times and Foreign Policy. Phillip Smyth, the Institute’s newest Soref Fellow, is a research associate on S