Eurasia

Amid the ongoing circus over efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, two rumors have started to gain traction inside and outside Iran: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is on his deathbed and preparations are being made for his son, Mojtaba, to succeed him. Speculation over Khamenei’s ill health …

The latest round of mass protests in Iran erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman. She died on Sept. 16 at the hands of the so-called morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s rules on mandatory veiling in public. Amini’s tragic death is yet another reminder of how …

What does the US president need to know? Our new “memo to the president” series has the answer with briefings on the world’s most pressing issues from our experts, drawing on their experience advising the highest levels of government.

Commander of U.S. Air Force Central Command, Lt. Gen Alex Grynkewich, said on Monday that Russia’s presence in Syria has become “more aggressive” both in the air and on the ground. “The Russian presence in Syria has become, I would argue, more aggressive since the Ukrainian invasion,” Grynkewich said. This …

While Russia announced its readiness to “create the atmosphere” for a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries, Western diplomatic sources in Ankara said that the security negotiations currently underway between Syrian and Turkish intelligence on the issue of rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara may end soon. The …

The opposition-run channel Iran International reported that Israeli airstrikes targeting Damascus last Saturday had aimed at the so-called Unit 2250 — a private Iranian logistics institution responsible for coordinating equipment transfers— which is managed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Israeli airstrikes hit warehouses, parking lots, and even the unit’s head …

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, said that Moscow supports the idea of organizing a meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. As a result, the meeting will create more commonalities between the two sides. Turkish media also reported that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan …

The scenes coming from Iran are striking. Women removing their head scarves and waving them defiantly in public while some are burning their veils and throwing them into bonfires to the cheers of men. Others are chopping off their hair in public to the chants of “Death to the dictator.” …

When does a country become designated as a narco-state? Have Lebanon and Syria already reached that stage? The simple definition of such a state is that drugs are openly traded with the approval or even protection of the government. So, the answer is simple: The growing Captagon trade has made …

Russia’s demographic problems, including the extremely high male mortality among working-age groups (Socio.bas-net.by, accessed September 21; Nakanune.ru, August 1) and the declining size of the Russian nation, especially in rural areas where most soldiers come from and opposition to the war is growing (Siberia.Realities, August 24), impose serious constraints on …