After registering, you will be emailed an RSVP confirmation. If you do not receive your email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folders.

Organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies; the Principles for Peace Foundation – Geneva, Switzerland; and the UCLA Center for Middle East Development.

About the Discussion

This week's ceasefire in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, while a welcome development, has left many questions unanswered, including: How much damage was truly done to Iran’s nuclear program? Where is the missing uranium? How long will it take Iran to restore the nuclear program and replenish its ballistic missiles? More broadly, can the weakening of Iran, and the central role of the US, lead to wider changes in the region, first and foremost to a deal to end the war in Gaza and bring all the hostages home? And what does it all mean for Israel’s and Iran's domestic politics?

About the Speakers

Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He was instrumental in helping Israelis and Palestinians reach the 1995 Interim Agreement; he also successfully brokered the 1997 Hebron Accord, facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, and intensively worked to bring Israel and Syria together. Later, he served two and a half years as special assistant to President Obama and as National Security Council senior director for the Central Region. Ambassador Ross is the author of five books on the peace process, the Middle East, and international relations, most recently Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel's Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny (Public Affairs, 2019).

Dr. Bijan Khajehpour has been recognized as a leading commentator of Iranian political and economic developments. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the non-profit Simorgh Verein that promotes cultural exchanges between the EU and Iran, a member of the advisory board of the European Middle East Research Group (EMERG), and a regular contributor to Al-Monitor. His publications include contributions to Iran at the Crossroads (Palgrave, 2001), Security in the Persian Gulf: Origins, Obstacles, and the Search for Consensus (Palgrave, 2002), L’économie réelle de l’Iran (L’Harmattan, 2014), and Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran (CIRS, 2015). He is currently the managing partner of Eurasian Nexus Partners (Eunepa)—a Vienna-based strategy consulting firm.

Dr. Shira Efron is Israel Policy Forum’s Research Director and The Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation Senior Fellow. She also serves as a special climate change advisor to Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the co-chair of the subgroup on regional cooperation of President Herzog’s climate forum. Dr. Efron has spent over 15 years in U.S. think tanks, including the RAND Corporation, where she founded and led the Israel program between 2016–2022, the Center for American Progress, and Middle East Institute, and the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies. She was previously a consultant with the U.N. country team in Jerusalem, where she focused on access and movement issues in Gaza. She is a member of the board of directors of Deborah Forum, which promotes women in the security establishment.

Professor Steven E. Zipperstein (moderator) is Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Zipperstein is a former US federal prosecutor and the former chief legal officer of Verizon Wireless and BlackBerry Ltd. He is the author of The Legal Case for Palestine: A Critical Assessment (Routledge 2025); Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism and the Law: 1939-1948 (Routledge 2022); Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Trials of Palestine (Routledge 2020).

DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.

Sponsor(s): Center for Middle East Development