Middle Orient

My latest piece for the online magazine ‘Syria in Transition’ is reprinted below. Based on visits to the Sayyida Zaynab shrine in the Damascus area, the piece examines what the shrine’s status tells us about the general situation of Syria’s Twelver Shia minority. The last banner of ZaynabSyria’s Shia find …

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The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute are publishing daily updates to provide analysis on the war with Iran. The updates focus on US and Israeli strikes on Iran and Iran and the Axis of Resistance’s response to …

Britain’s national media fails to recognise the influence – and even the existence – of an Israel lobby, our new media analysis shows. Declassified researched two years of reporting by seven British media outlets and found only 16 mentions of the phrase Israel lobby without speech marks. Nearly all those …

Exclusive: Ministry of Defence satellite data analysed by Declassified indicates Britain had a more active role in Iran war than ministers admit. The UK government has played a quiet intelligence role in the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran, satellite data analysed by Declassified suggests. Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) sent …

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute are publishing daily updates to provide analysis on the war with Iran. The updates focus on US and Israeli strikes on Iran and Iran and the Axis of Resistance’s response to …

On May 5, the Syrian Ministry of Interior and the General Intelligence Directorate announced that security forces thwarted a major terrorist attack aiming to destabilize the country. In a series of coordinated operations carried out in the Aleppo, Rif Dimashq, Homs, Latakia, and Tartus Governorates, Syrian forces arrested 11 militants …

Israel is expanding its control over territory in southern Syria, not merely through military means, but also through the purchase of agricultural lands by individuals of Jewish descent holding multiple nationalities, Al-Akhbar reported on 4 May. According to a local source in the Deraa Governorate of southern Syria, extensive purchases …

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz marks a rupture in the post-1970s energy order, with consequences that may redefine how the global economy functions The US and Israeli-led war on Iran has initiated a chain reaction that has culminated in the most significant oil supply disruption in modern history. …

Discord between Western allies — ostensibly due to contrasting views towards Islam and Israel — has recently escalated to a new height. Its core most likely consists of a deep-seated envy that a handful of scruffy, hunted people managed to transform a land of sand dunes, deserts and malarial swamps …