Middle Orient

This week, Russia struck deep into Ukraine and hit the capital, Kyiv, with kamikaze drones. These small and noisy airborne devices are designed to strike at a distance. They are nimble enough to avoid many air defense systems. Unlike many other attack drones, they do not use weapons to destroy …

Wars tend to spread, infecting parts of the world far from the frontlines and the Ukraine conflict is no exception. The global economic ripple effects of the war in Ukraine – from the world’s sharpest “hunger pains” since World War II to soaring inflation and energy crises – have been …

The Islamic State caliphate, which held large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, was defeated in 2018, yet analysts are seeing signs, including a growing number of attacks in northern and western Iraq, of a resurgence, a cause for concern that needs to be watched closely. “The Islamic State …

Abstract: A fragile U.N.-brokered ceasefire between the Houthis and their military opponents in Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) held from April to October 2022 but has now lapsed. The Houthis hold the key to an enduring ceasefire in Yemen, and can threaten the stability of Red Sea shipping lanes and …

[W]e also know that Henry Kissinger, peddler of detente, helped prolong the evil empire’s life by providing it with easy credit and undeserved prestige. In the case of Iran, Obama and his entourage invented a false choice between “doing another Iraq”, which meant a full-scale invasion that a majority of …

Although the U.S. government had acknowledged that ISIS was committing genocide against Christians in Syria due solely to their religious identity, it took in only those who by definition were not in any way being targeted by ISIS — Sunni Muslims, with whom ISIS, a Sunni organization, identifies and does …

The Washington-based Pew Research Center, founded in 1996, has made its name by investigating the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Part of its early work involved studying the last generational cohort before the millennium. It named them the Millennials, which it defined as anyone born between 1981 and …

Iran’s continuous nationwide uprising continued for the 35th day Thursday as anti-regime protests escalated in the form of night rallies in several cities. Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to 193 cities. Over 400 people have been killed and more than 20,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, …

Iran’s military is conducting large-scale military drills on its border with Azerbaijan, including practicing crossings of the Aras River, which defines a large part of the border between the two states. The exercises, called “Mighty Iran,” began on October 17. The exact location has not been specified, but Iranian media …

Following a month of nationwide protests, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s notorious morality police, there is growing belief that the militant clerical regime, in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is living on borrowed time.