Middle Orient

Key TakeawaysIran launched two ballistic missiles targeting the US-UK base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean on March 21, marking the furthest ever attempted Iranian missile strike. The attack demonstrated that Iranian missiles can reach beyond the 2,000-kilometer limit that the regime has long claimed to have self-imposed. One …

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, abruptly resigned Tuesday, becoming the most senior national security official to break publicly with the Trump administration over its military campaign against Iran. In a statement posted on social media, Kent said he “cannot in good conscience” continue serving in the …

Last night, Israeli officials announced that Ali Larijani — head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council — and Gholamreza Soleimani — head of Iran’s Basij militia — were killed in separate overnight strikes.With strikes targeting the Basij and its leaders, the regime faces the prospect of the Persian New Year …

Bottom Line Up Front Should the Houthis in Yemen enter the war, they could serve as a force multiplier for Tehran by further depleting U.S. and Israeli air and missile defenses and diverting combat missions from Iran to sites in Yemen. The Houthis would likely target oil tankers in the …

Bottom Line Up Front There are myriad assumptions by the Trump administration that have proven faulty thus far and have contributed to the devastation wrought by this conflict to date. In addition to misplaced assumptions, Washington’s strategic communications have hampered the military campaign. Tehran recognizes that it will not be …

The Eastern Mediterranean rarely remains insulated from turbulence in the Middle East. Yet, the events of early March 2026 marked an unusual escalation: a drone strike targeting the British air base at RAF Akrotiri, on the southern coast of Cyprus, brought the island directly into the operational environment of the …

The day after the Hamas-led campaign of terror on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began launching near daily rocket attacks targeting Israel. A year later, Israeli forces finally took the fight to the Shi’ite militia in Lebanon, and on September 27, 2024, a targeted Israeli airstrike on an underground Hezbollah command …

The war’s effects on Syria have largely fallen below the radar, yet no one should forget how much has changed there since 2024, nor how important it is to preserve the government’s accomplishments against Iran and its partners while acknowledging the conflict’s local economic consequences. Had the Iran war occurred …

Renewed warfare with Israel aside, Hezbollah will not be permanently undone unless one of two scenarios occurs: regime change in Iran, or the complete dismantlement of the group’s domestic financial system and political power. If the previous wars between Israel and Hezbollah had taught us anything, it’s that Hezbollah cannot …

A sanctioned Iranian oil magnate and his brother have used aliases and Caribbean “golden passports” to amass a $29 million luxury real estate portfolio in Dubai, property records show. Hossein Shamkhani and his brother, Abolfazl, are the sons of Ali Shamkhani, a political adviser to Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah …