Toplines Iran is likely trying to deter US military action against Iran by deploying forces and conducting naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS)-affiliated outlet Defa Press claimed on January 29 that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy deployed “hundreds of fast, missile-launching, …

EU foreign ministers agreed Thursday to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist” group, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she said. Meeting in Brussels ahead of the terror designation …

The government’s gains in the northwest will have an echo nationally, but will they alter Israeli calculations? By crossing the Euphrates River in recent days, Syrian government forces broke through a decade-old boundary that had defined Syria’s conflict, behind which the Kurd-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had sustained a de …

Two big diplomatic wins from this year offer lessons for future Arab efforts toward constructive multilateral action. The Arab world was already badly divided when recent wars and military conflicts broke out between state actors and between them and nonstate actors in 2023. But paradoxically, these tremors have created conditions …

In an interview, Ibrahim Jalal discusses the Southern Transitional Council’s recent takeover of Hadhramawt and Mahra. Ibrahim Jalal was previously a nonresident scholar at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, where he specialized on Yemen as well as on the evolving regional security architecture in the Middle East …

Ankara may seek to annul a maritime deal with Cyprus and expand its influence in the next parliament. Since the downfall of the Assad regime in Syria on December 8, 2024, the expansion of Türkiye’s influence has been repeatedly highlighted by U.S. and Israeli officials. President Donald Trump regularly points …

Beirut and Baghdad are both watching how the other seeks to give the state a monopoly of weapons. In the aftermath of the recent conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon’s ongoing push to impose a “state monopoly of arms” has ceased to be a purely Lebanese story. When, on the …

The United States and Iran are not on the brink of open war. There is no countdown, no formal ultimatum, no declared strike order — but Donald Trump’s latest warning has undeniably raised the temperature. The relationship is entering a phase where the margin for error is shrinking. Danger no …

Iran’s foreign minister warned Wednesday its forces would respond immediately and forcefully to any US military operation after President Donald Trump declared time was running out to avoid one, but did not rule out a new deal on Tehran’s nuclear program. The Islamic republic’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi warned its …

A Bloomberg News investigation reveals that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s Supreme Leader, controls a vast international network of luxury real estate and offshore companies, valued at hundreds of millions. On a quiet, tree-lined stretch of north London known as Billionaire’s Row, multimillion-pound mansions sit hidden behind high hedges, iron …