Middle Orient

Hostage point man said to demand action for return of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili’s remains; Muslim-majority countries worried Israel aims to transfer Gazans to Egypt with opening of Rafah crossing Israel has told mediators that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad know how to reach the remains of Master Sgt. Ran …

Bottom Line Up Front Israel’s policy in Syria relies on hard power and control over territory rather than building an interrelated web of diplomatic alliances and coalitions to protect its interests. Israeli leaders are expanding a buffer zone in southern Syria even though U.S. officials warn that doing so might …

Gaza stabilization must include precise disarmament rules, independent monitoring, and pressure from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey to counter Hamas’s blend of flexibility and intransigence. After the publication of President Donald Trump’s twenty-point plan, many were surprised to see Hamas relinquish some of its ostensibly nonnegotiable demands from the past two …

In the eyes of Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups, the plan is nothing but another temporary ceasefire, not different than previous ones reached between Israel and Hamas over the past two decades. Those who think that Hamas, by agreeing to Trump’s “peace plan,” has abandoned its desire to eliminate …

The rapidly evolving dynamics of global power and security have transformed Eurasia into a critical arena of competition and cooperation. The continent, spanning from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has become a focal point for major geopolitical shifts, particularly amid the waning dominance of Western-centric institutions and the rise of …

In addition to providing discounted crude of a quality desired by American refiners, the resumption of oil flows via the ITP is already showing promise of furthering U.S. policy toward partners and adversaries alike. On November 24—two months after the reopening of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP)—an oil tanker laden with …

Toplines Former senior Assad regime officials are likely funding and equipping clandestine networks in Syria to conduct insurgent activity against the Syrian transitional government. Reuters reported on December 5 that former Military Intelligence Chief Major General Kamal Hassan and Bashar al Assad’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf, have formed rival Alawite militias …

Toplines Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba head Akram al Kaabi threatened on December 3 to attack US Special Envoy to Iraq Mark Savaya in response to Savaya’s “blatant interference in Iraqi affairs.”[1] Iranian-backed Iraqi militias are unlikely to attack Savaya due to the potential repercussions that such an …

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Washington and its allies are waiting for Beirut to acknowledge the difficult but unavoidable truth: that war will resume unless serious action is taken to target all the pillars of Hezbollah’s power, bolster Shia political alternatives, and otherwise satisfy the ceasefire’s most important requirement: disarming the group. Although major military …