Middle Orient

Dr. Efron is the Israel policy chair and a senior fellow at RAND. The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, for now, runs parallel to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. But Lebanon will become a main arena when the campaign against Tehran ends. Israel began planning its operation in …

What is unfolding before our eyes is of historic significance. The United States will lose its claim to hegemony over the world just a few decades after the fall of the USSR. There is a considerable discrepancy between what the official Western media report about the war in Iran and …

The monthlong conflict and developments in Gaza have weakened the terrorist group’s connection to Tehran, offering Washington an opportunity to achieve its goals by working through Qatar and Turkey as well as Egypt. The Iran war has both exposed and widened a longstanding division between Hamas officials aligned with Iran …

The country’s strategy is no longer focused on deterrence and diplomacy, it’s about dominance and degradation. In launching war against Iran, Israel has made unmistakably clear that it is operating according to a strategic logic very different from the one that has long guided its statecraft. The United States may …

Only collective security can protect fragile economic models. Amid the open-ended war that the United States and Israel kicked off this weekend, each of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states has been targeted—and in some cases hit—by Iranian drone and missile strikes. The strikes sparked fires near luxury hotels in …

In an interview, Sergei Melkonian discusses Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s careful balancing act among the United States, Israel, and Iran. Armenak Tokmajyan: How have Armenia and Azerbaijan responded so far to the U.S.–Israeli war on Iran, given their need to maintain good working relations with their large neighbor while avoiding antagonizing …

At heart, to impose unconditional surrender on Hezbollah and uproot the party among its coreligionists. Israel is repeating parts of the military playbook it used against Hezbollah in 2024, but its strategy is different this time. It was evident, even before Hezbollah fired a handful of rockets toward Haifa in …

Stakeholders must demand major restructuring of the Board of Peace and robust oversight and transparency before engaging with it. Until then, rights-respecting existing platforms and mechanisms for multilateral peacemaking should be supported. With world attention focused on the war spreading from Iran to the Middle East and beyond, multilateralism and …

The country’s strategy is no longer focused on deterrence and diplomacy, it’s about dominance and degradation. In launching war against Iran, Israel has made unmistakably clear that it is operating according to a strategic logic very different from the one that has long guided its statecraft. The United States may …

Iran would target shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial conduit for global oil and other goods leading to the Suez Canal, if the United States launches a ground invasion, an unnamed military official told local media Wednesday. “If the enemy attempts a ground operation on Iranian islands or anywhere …