Middle Orient

Latest Developments Canada’s federal government designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on June 19 as a terrorist organization pursuant to the Criminal Code. The move comes after years of pressure from Canada’s parliament, opposition, and Iranian diaspora, which have repeatedly highlighted the IRGC’s longstanding role in fomenting international terrorism, …

An official United Nations inquiry into violations of international law by Israel in Palestine submitted its findings yesterday, accusing Israeli leaders of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the “extermination” of Palestinians in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Navi Pillay, the chairperson of the inquiry and former United Nations …

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned “no place” in Israel would be spared in case of full-blown war against the Lebanese group, and threatened Cyprus if it opened its airports to Israel. “The enemy knows well that we have prepared ourselves for the worst… and that no place… will …

Hamas is preserving its forces in Rafah rather than engaging the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), likely because Hamas does not believe Israel’s Rafah operation will be decisive.[i] Israeli journalists traveling with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Rafah reported that Hamas fighters are avoiding becoming decisively engaged, and that Hamas’ …

Latest Developments Hezbollah warned Cyprus on June 19 against helping Israel in any future war in Lebanon, signaling that the Mediterranean island nation could also face a terrorist attack. Amid expectations that more than eight months of Hezbollah provocations against northern Israel could soon spiral into full-blown war, the Iran-backed …

A drastic escalation of tensions between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon over the past week has brought the prospect of an expansion of war across the Middle East ever closer. Following Israel’s assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander and a retaliatory rocket barrage fired on northern Israel, The …

Israeli military triumphs and exploits often produce battlefield victories that fail to garner political gains. The Gaza war has changed that paradigm. It has produced neither a military nor a political victory. Adding fuel to the fire, Israel has abandoned the notion that soft power is as important as hard …

The sudden death of Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian regime’s president, in a suspicious helicopter crash will disrupt the constructed succession plan for the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This disruption will not necessarily favor Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, as many might assume, but will instead create opportunities for …

As Jonathan Tobin writes at Commentary: The Khamenei Palestine book is important not in and of itself but because the regime’s obsession with Israel is a key to its foreign policy. Iran constitutes a grave threat to Neighboring Arab countries that are at least as angry about the president’s embrace …

Latest Developments The State Department designated an Iran-backed Iraqi militia — Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya (HAAA) — on June 17 as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group. State also designated HAAA’s secretary general, Haydar Muzhir Ma’lak al-Sa’idi. The designees are part of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq (IRI), an umbrella …