The Islamic Republic of Iran has weathered another wave of anti-government protests, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed on January 12. By his reading of the volatile situation, the regime has seized “total control” of the streets. His claim has yet to be verified, but, as the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War indicates, […]
As 2025 draws to a close, Israel’s volatile conflict with its arch enemy, Iran, is simmering ominously and threatening to boil over again in another war. Six months after Operation Rising Lion, its 12-day war with Iran, Israel is increasingly concerned that the Iranian regime is expanding its stocks of ballistic missiles and rebuilding its […]
Israel’s security cabinet, acting on a resolution proposed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, announced earlier this month that 11 new settlements will be built and 8 illegal outposts will be legalized in the West Bank. Smotrich, a settler himself and an ardent champion of the settlement movement beyond the pre-1967 […]
A pragmatic voice of reason was heard in Lebanon a few days ago. Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji went out on a limb and minced no words when he criticized Hezbollah and Iran, both of which have destabilized Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbor, for the past four decades. Rajji, in fighting words, declared that Lebanon’s security […]
President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza Strip peace plan, approved by the United Nations Security Council on November 17, has not advanced beyond its first and least difficult phase. Its second and most problematic phase will not be addressed until 2026. The plan is grounded in a ceasefire that ended the two-year Israel-Hamas war, which caused […]
A year ago, on December 8, President Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist regime in Syria fell like a house of cards and was immediately replaced by an Islamist government led by Ahmed al-Shara, a former jihadist affiliated with Al Qaeda. It was a defining moment in Syria, an Arab state misruled by the Assad family for more […]
The ceasefire that was supposed to end the war in Lebanon has effectively broken down as Israel continues to attack Hezbollah operatives and military infrastructure on almost a daily basis. In its latest operation, on November 23, Israel killed Hezbollah’s chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, the former commander of the Radwan Force, a special […]
When he resumed office as Israeli prime minister in December 2022 after an interlude of about a year in the opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu said that one of his main foreign policy goals was to reach a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia within the framework of the 2020 Abraham Accords. In an interview with the Saudi […]
Nearly six months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire ended Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, both sides are on the cusp of renewing the fighting. Judging by the bellicose statements emanating from Jerusalem and Tehran since June, a second Israel-Iran war could well break out. Shortly after declaring victory in Operation Rising Lion, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin […]
The United States is normalizing its frayed relationship with Syria, a key Arab state struggling to rebuild itself after a ruinous 12-year civil war. It is bound to be an incremental process, judging by Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara’s visit to Washington on November 10. A former jihadist who seized power after overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad […]