Middle Orient

As Syria struggles to rebuild, Israel is using the chaos to entrench military dominance and prevent any new regional order from restraining its power It has been nearly a year since the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s government in Syria. For the past nearly 12 months, Israel has continued its aggression, …

Last week, the UN Security Council endorsed President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, effectively installing American supervision over the Palestinian territory’s postwar future. The resolution, which mandated a transitional administration and an international stabilisation force, faced sharp rejection from several Palestinian factions, who warned that it would undermine the national …

An Israeli attack on Sunday killed one of Hezbollah’s top leaders, threatening to unravel a November 2024 ceasefire that has kept most of the Lebanese population out of the crossfire. Hezbollah has been rebuilding its missile and drone arsenal, but its capacity to retaliate is limited by continued military weakness …

Iran shows no signs of altering its core policies despite the damage done by Israel and the United States to Iran’s strategic architecture. A continuation of Iran’s existing policies is unlikely to bring the sanctions relief that moderate leaders such as elected President Masoud Pezeshkian deem vital to addressing economic …

The city of Suwayda (in southern Syria) is witnessing security tensions following an arrest campaign that has targeted figures opposing the spiritual leader of the Druze community, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri. Enab Baladi’s correspondent reported that National Guard forces, which are backed by Sheikh al-Hijri, carried out arrests in the province …

Toplines Israel reportedly gave the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) a deadline of December 7 to make progress in its disarmament of Hezbollah amid ongoing Israeli preparations for a potential operation in Lebanon.[1] An Israeli Channel 13 journalist reported on November 28 that the LAF has until after Pope Leo XIV …

Toplines The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed Hezbollah’s “de facto chief of staff” and senior commander Haitham Ali Tabatabai in Beirut’s southern suburbs on November 23.[1] Tabatabai’s death will likely disrupt Hezbollah’s reconstitution for a short period because of Tabatabai’s significant experience at many echelons of command in fighting against …

More than ten civilians, including women and children, were killed and 11 others injured when the Israeli army bombed the town of Beit Jinn (in the Damascus countryside near Mount Hermon in southern Syria) at dawn on Friday, 28 November. The town is currently witnessing a wave of displacement to …

The Islamic Group in Lebanon has expressed surprise at Israel dragging its name into what it called the Israeli “attack” on the Syrian town of Beit Jinn (a town in the southwestern countryside of Damascus, near the occupied Syrian Golan Heights), denying Israeli accusations that it carries out any activities …

The Palestinian terror groups clearly want to hold on to their weapons: they evidently see that having weapons is the only way for them to control, directly and indirectly, any new government established in the Gaza Strip. They also evidently see that whoever is in charge of security in the …