Middle Orient

When Israel attacked Iran nearly two weeks ago, the Chinese government, a longtime friend of Iran, jumped into action — at least, when it came to words. It condemned the attacks. Its leader, Xi Jinping, got on the phone with the Russian leader and urged a ceasefire. Its foreign minister …

A preliminary U.S. defense intelligence assessment of U.S. strikes on Iran’s key nuclear sites raised questions about the Trump policy to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Statements by U.S. and Iranian officials, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency and Israeli nuclear authorities, however, suggest Iran’s major …

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday — a meeting that underscored the trilateral relationship between Russia, China, and Iran. Iran is a geopolitical lever for both Moscow and Beijing, allowing them to complicate Western strategies in the Middle East, even as …

Key Takeaways US and Israeli airstrikes on the Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center (ENTC) between June 12 and 24 reportedly destroyed components of Iran’s nuclear program that would be necessary for weaponization. The strikes destroyed the Uranium Metal Conversion Plant at the ENTC, which Iran could have used to transform uranium …

Since the eruption of the Israeli–Iranian war on the morning of Friday, 13 June, Syrian public sentiment has reflected a layered and often contradictory emotional and political landscape. Many Syrians expressed clear satisfaction with Israel’s strikes on the Iranian regime, while others took grim solace when Iranian missiles reached Tel …

US and Israeli strikes severely set back Iran’s enrichment capabilities, but Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile poses a long-term threat. The United States dropped twelve 30,000lb GBU-57 bunker buster bombs on Fordow, directly targeted points above the centrifuge cascade hall, and likely destroyed all six IR-1 and seven IR-6 cascades that …

E_127_25Download Prior to the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, which was announced on June 24, 2025, seniorofficials in the Iranian administration and the security-military leadership continued tothreaten harsh responses to Israel’s ongoing attacks on Iran and the American attack on threenuclear facilities in Iran. The officials called the attacks a …

In the days before U.S. airstrikes hit Iran’s Fordow and Isfahan nuclear sites, satellite images captured convoys of cargo trucks leaving the facilities. Nuclear experts now believe Iran relocated more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium—enough for 10 nuclear weapons—to a secret location, a move that has left U.S. …

Paradoxically, President Donald Trump appears to have secured an end or perhaps a pause to the 12-day Iran-Israel war with a fragile ceasefire but there is no guarantee that it will not resume again. Even Trump isn’t confident about the “ceasefire” he is taking credit for. Interestingly, notwithstanding the claims …

Israel has turned key components of Iran’s tyrannical regime into rubble. In solidarity with the Iranian people who have long endured the regime’s brutality, the first wave of Israeli strikes from June 13-18 targeted those who have most repressed them: senior military commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), …