Dr. Banafsheh Keynoush, who earned her Ph.D. from Tufts University, has conducted research in the Near East for 2 decades.

She has contributed to the Commonwealth Club's Member-led Middle East Forum, as has Robert Rosenthal, today's moderator, a former international journalist and former managing editor at the San Francisco Chronicle.

They will talk about about her latest book, Iran's Interregional Dynamics in the Near East, about:

• how Iran was less successful in expanding regional influence than assumed
• why opportunities to engage with Iran have been squandered
• Pope Francis' recent visit to Iraq and his meeting with Iranian-born cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
• the complex relations between Iran and other states in the Near East, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and others