Middle Orient

The Iran Update provides insights into Iranian and Iranian-sponsored activities abroad that undermine regional stability and threaten US forces and interests. It also covers events and trends that affect the stability and decision-making of the Iranian regime. The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute …

Several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahieh have been reduced to rubble following ferocious Israeli airstrikes. Dozens of buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs have been completely levelled following a night of heavy Israeli bombardment targeting the Lebanese capital on Friday. Smoke could still be seen billowing from several buildings …

Iran, having just had two of its major proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, seriously degraded, is apparently setting its sights on a new, “consolation prize” proxy to use as an additional base of operations: Sudan. Iran’s strategy of supporting and infiltrating other countries and terrorist groups — as it has done …

In just over a week, intensified Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed seven high-ranking commanders and officials from the powerful Hezbollah militant group, including the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The move left Lebanon and much of the Mideast in shock as Israeli officials celebrated major military and intelligence breakthroughs. Hezbollah had …

These lessons are: 1) prioritizing military goals over political ones; 2) the importance of superior intelligence; 3) insensitivity to public opinion; 4) the need for one’s “deep state” to be fully convinced of the ongoing conflict’s existential nature; and 5) practicing “radical decisiveness”. The latest Israeli-Lebanese War and the Ukrainian …

The death of Hassan Nasrallah is a significant blow to Hezbollah and the organization’s key sponsor, Iran. Hezbollah, a militant group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon, said Nasrallah was killed in Israeli air strikes in the capital, Beirut, on September 27. In his more than 30 …

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on the organization’s underground headquarters in southern Beirut the previous night. The question is, what happens in the wake of Nasrallah’s death? Where will his assassination take Lebanon and the region? What will …

The ongoing Israeli operation against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia group so dominant in Lebanon, is following a standard pattern. Ignore base causes. Ignore context. Target leaders, and target personnel. See matters in conventional terms of civilisational warrior against barbarian despot. Israel, the valiant and bold, fighting the forces of darkness. …

Nabil Qaouq, a senior member of Hezbollah’s executive council was killed in another Israeli airstrike south of Beirut on Saturday Israel said Sunday it killed another senior Hezbollah official in an airstrike a day earlier after dealing the Iran-backed group a seismic blow by assassinating its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Israel …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a message to the Iranian people, emphasizing that Israel “stands with them.” In a video statement in English, Netanyahu criticized the Iranian regime, claiming it subjugates its people daily while pretending to defend Lebanon and Gaza. “Every day, you witness a regime that subjugates …