Middle Orient

Despite longstanding ideological and political differences, Tehran is working to rebuild ties with Egypt and Bahrain, hoping to ease regional tensions. Recent remarks by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi about restoring relations with Bahrain and Egypt have once again drawn attention to Iran’s strained diplomacy in the region. The comments …

A variety of Syrian armed groups, including those associated with the new transitional government, the Assad regime, and hardline Islamic groups, have committed a series of extrajudicial killings since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. CTP-ISW absolutely condemns these extrajudicial killings. Salafi-jihadi groups, such as the Islamic …

E_104_25Download IDF forces continued operations against Hezbollah’s presence in south Lebanon, whichviolates the understandings of the ceasefire agreement, and against the organization’sattempts to renew its military capabilities. A specialist in constructing facilities for theproduction of precision surface-to-surface missiles and operatives from the organization’s eliteRadwan Force were eliminated. Hezbollah used the …

An Israel-backed NGO began distributing aid in southern Gaza on Tuesday, following weeks of delays and mounting criticism. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) handed out food parcels in the Tel al-Sultan area west of Rafah under a new Israeli-run system that bypasses UN agencies, drawing sharp condemnation from Palestinian officials …

Operation Gideon vehicles constitutes an unprecedented Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip, with the aim of dismantling Hamas and redrawing the map of the Strip demographically and militarily, amid mounting international and regional pressure. Despite its ambition to end the war, Israel faces internal and external challenges that could turn …

The joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee, which convened on Friday in the presence of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, agreed to begin implementing the directives outlined in the joint statement issued by the Lebanese-Palestinian summit held on Wednesday in Beirut, in terms of restricting weapons to the hands of the Lebanese …

The Trump administration’s pursuit of a negotiated agreement over Iran’s nuclear program is the only sound policy that can prevent a regional conflagration. Beyond that, it offers a unique opportunity that can change the regional security trajectory and potentially usher in long-term peace and stability The negotiations between the United …

Tehran has announced that it will resume drilling for oil and gas in the Caspian. It stopped such drilling in 1997 and ended its deep-water petroleum operations on that sea in 2014, but it now hopes to actively exploit the more than 600 million barrels of oil and 56.6 billion …

Truck drivers across Iran have launched a nationwide strike over rising insurance and maintenance costs and worsening economic conditions.[1] The truck drivers are protesting the government’s plan to cut the amount of subsidized diesel allocated to truckers.[2] Strikers also cited unaffordable insurance premiums, stagnant freight rates, and deteriorating road infrastructure.[3] …

What Washington Needs From Nuclear Negotiations With Tehran Of all the consensus-bucking foreign policy moves that U.S. President Donald Trump has undertaken, few have been more surprising than the resurrection of nuclear talks with Iran. Trump, after all, pulled the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the …