Middle Orient

Xi has been supremely confident that China will dominate the rest of the century… “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years,” the Chinese leader told Vladimir Putin after their 40th in-person chat, in Moscow in March 2023. “And we are driving this change together.” Many in Washington and …

The vigil held by some Syrians in front of the headquarters of the National Committee to Combat Graft in the Mezzeh area of Damascus last January, in protest against the financial settlement with businessman Mohammed Hamsho, who is close to the deposed Assad regime, did not prevent the completion of …

Following the 12-day war in late June 2025, the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) immediately began a project to understand how the region has changed and what the military action could mean for future combat. The project and its contributors believed that war would resume and that the pause in …

Even as his country was under threat from Iran, Oman’s ruler congratulated the Islamic Republic’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, on his appointment, expressing his “best wishes for success in assuming his leadership responsibilities.” Less than 48 hours later, Iranian drones struck Oman’s Salalah Port, hitting the fuel tanks. On …

The Islamic State group announced through its weekly publication al-Naba that it had carried out a series of separate attacks in Syria. The attacks targeted members of the Syrian government forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Aleppo and al-Hasakah countryside over the past week, killing at least …

Iraqi militias loyal to the Iranian regime claimed that they shot down a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker over western Iraq on March 12. The US military has confirmed that the tanker crashed but stated that it was not brought down via “hostile fire.” The aircraft was used to refuel …

With each day of glorified actions against Iran, with each cloudy press session claiming supreme success through sheer force, the Trump administration is struggling to keep up appearances. Through an approach of existential attrition, the clerical regime in Tehran is now causing shocks and tingles in the global market, striking …

L’Axe de la Résistance a resserré l’étau. Le Yémen à “l’heure zéro”, la CIA traquée par les Irakiens, l’offensive “Al-Asf al-Ma’kul” du Hezbollah & l’Iran maintient le contrôle sur le détroit d’Ormuz. Le Yémen proclame “l’heure zéro” — L’armada américaine (Marines et bombardiers) se prépare pour “la grande frappe”, et …

NOTE: ISW-CTP will not publish morning updates covering the war with Iran on March 14 and 15. ISW-CTP will publish threads on its social media channels in the morning on these days that cover the latest developments in the war and include relevant maps. CORRECTION: ISW-CTP removed a sentence that …

La guerre comme mandat divinLorsque les guerres géopolitiques commencent à être interprétées comme l’accomplissement d’une prophétie, la stratégie cède la place à la théologie et la diplomatie devient presque impossible. L’affrontement en cours, qui oppose d’un côté les États-Unis et Israël, et de l’autre la République islamique d’Iran et ses …