Iran

Tensions between Washington and Tehran are rising by the day. But while much of the commentary focuses on what might happen inside Iran, more immediate danger likely lies to Israel’s north. Lebanon is shaping up as the second front of a widening confrontation. Israel has stepped up its air campaign …

Shots of belching flames at the world’s first seven-star hotel aren’t the images Dubai wants Instagram influencers to share after decades spent cultivating the glittering city’s brand as a unique global hub of peace and prosperity. Nor will the shots of fallen missile debris do anything for the reputation of …

The Tehran regime’s octopus may have lost its head, but its tentacles still grip the country and the region. The joint military campaign by the United States and Israel launched on February 28 has not only targeted the regime’s ballistic missile program and military installations. It has also eliminated many …

Washington Institute experts assess the immediate implications of U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran, including the regime’s future after major leadership losses, reactions inside Iran and Lebanon, the fallout for the Gulf states, the contours of potential diplomacy once the fighting stops, and more. The statements made by President Trump and …

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute are publishing two updates daily to provide analysis on the war with Iran. The morning update will focus on US and Israeli strikes on Iran and Iran and the Axis of …

When former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Turkey, with the support of Qatar, was replacing Iran as Israel’s major strategic threat, his words were not just another warning about another enemy. Instead, his remarks reflected a broader anxiety: Israel could be entering a period of renewed conflict with …

Reza Pahlavi’s popularity and Iran’s mounting discontent raise the possibility of restoring a constitutional monarchy, a secular, democratic alternative increasingly viewed as a stable path forward after the Islamic Republic. “Now is the time to rise; the time to reclaim Iran. Let us all come forward and bring about the …

With the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the temptation is strong to redraw Iran’s borders or install a friendly despot. The US should resist it. The US-Israel assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has brought the Islamic Republic of Iran to its most uncertain power transition since the revolution …

Ali Khamenei has dominated Iran’s clerical system for nearly four decades and sidelined all potential rivals—meaning there is no obvious choice for his successor. Iranian state media has confirmed reports that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran’s theocratic ruler since 1989, was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike. Khamenei’s death came amid …

In the objectively existing reality in which International Relations are unfolding, Russia has proven its reliability as an ally to the five countries that comprise the CSTO, while popular claims that it’s Syria, Venezuela, and/or Iran’s ally are bonafide “Potemkinism”, or nothing but an alternative reality. A popular Ukrainian media …