Middle Orient

A new U.S. intelligence assessment on Iran may once again be inaccurate. Last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released its annual worldwide threat assessment, including an updated estimate on Iran’s nuclear program and efforts to construct a nuclear device, known as “weaponization.” The estimate stated …

Two rockets were launched at Kiryat Shmona from south Lebanon for the second time in lessthan a week. One rocket was intercepted and the other fell in Lebanese territory. There wereno casualties. The IDF attacked Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon, including a building in theDahiyeh al-Janoubia in Beirut, for the …

European countries are working to improve weapons supplies to Ukraine and boost Europe’s security architecture. Including Turkey and its powerful defense industry in these schemes is a priority, but doing so raises moral and strategic concerns. The last week of March was a momentous one for Europe. On the morning …

Latest Developments President Announces Cabinet: Syrian transitional government leader Ahmad al-Sharaa announced a new government cabinet on March 29, filling 22 ministerial positions over the weekend. The new cabinet includes one woman, Hind Kabawat, as minister of social affairs; one member of the Druze minority, Amgad Badr, as minister of …

The fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime came not with a grand international declaration, but with the gradual crumbling of a system that had long outlived its foundations and a flash military operation by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Now, the opposition, which once fought for its survival against …

On March 31, 2025, the Ijtihad [Independent Jurisprudential Reasoning] and Fatwa Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headquartered in Qatar, issued a brief ten-point fatwa about “the continuation of aggression on Gaza and violation of the ceasefire” by Israel, calling for all Muslims and Muslim …

On the morning of Wednesday, March 19, Istanbul police arrested Ekrem İmamoğlu, the city’s mayor and a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). According to the prosecutor’s statement, İmamoğlu and 106 others were charged with leading and participating in a criminal organization, extortion, bribery, aggravated fraud, unlawful acquisition …

Abstract: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s background as a former branch of the Islamic State and al-Qa`ida has created a perception that it is untrustworthy when it comes to security concerns of the United States and its allies. This has come to the fore even more acutely with the fall of the …

It is now common practice to refer to Ahmad al-Sharaa as Syria’s interim president. Following the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad, Sharaa was appointed on January 29, 2025 by the Syrian General Command – the collective leadership of the rebel factions that had coordinated Assad’s overthrow. Tasked with forming …

On December 7, 1941, the United States was thrust into the Second World War when Imperial Japan launched a surprise attack against Pearl Harbor. While there were already warning signs of Japanese aggression, the surprise assault still caught America sleeping. Similarly, on September 11, 2001, the United States suffered the …