Five aid workers have been abducted in Syria while delivering supplies to the besieged province of Sweida this week, in what their colleagues told The National was an alarming development. On Monday, seven of eight vehicles carrying privately donated aid from the Damascus suburb of Jaramana were ambushed and looted …

Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Larijani gave an interview on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s website on August 22 in which he discussed Iran’s post-war defense and considerations for future conflicts.[1] Larijani warned that adversaries may seek new opportunities to attack Iran and that Iran must correct its defensive …

We must look at how the war has reshaped Moscow’s concept of international relations and global power projection if we are to appreciate Russia’s changing geopolitical strategy in the post-Ukraine war era. Since the beginning of the war with Ukraine, Russia’s strategic thought has radically changed, as Russian policymakers realized …