Middle Orient

Over the course of two weeks in May and June, the Middle East Institute hosted its inaugural Lebanon policy conference in collaboration with the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL) and LIFE. This series of events brought together leading diplomats, policymakers, economists, development practitioners, and think tank professionals from the …

This week, which will see Iran’s presidential elections, was also supposed to mark the finale of nuclear talks among Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany, and the European Union in Vienna. But a new deal is unlikely to be reached by Friday. The question now is what to make of …

Weeks before U.S. President Joe Biden met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Erdogan vowed that the meeting would be transformative. In a virtual gathering with American investors last month, he predicted that the encounter would “herald a new era.” It was no …

Iranians will go to the polls this Friday to choose the successor to centrist President Hassan Rouhani, who is winding down his second four-year term and cannot run for reelection. The polls will take place in an atmosphere of widespread public apathy, as voters choose from a list of presidential …

Secretary of State Antony Blinken… stated at his inauguration hearing that he had “deep concern about the designation” of the Houthis as a terrorist organization, in that “at least on its surface it seems to achieve nothing particularly practical in advancing the efforts against the Houthis and to bring them …

Terror leader issues threat if Israel doesn’t stop retaliating for balloon-borne attacks, end blockade on enclave; says Gaza groups have already formulated plan of action A senior member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said Saturday that Gaza terror groups have sent a message to Egyptian mediators warning of a violent response …

Now that the 18-year period is recognized as a campaign, with a medal for its soldiers, some security zone veterans look back and find unexpected relevance for them and the country On the night of May 24, 2000, Brig. Gen. Benny Gantz passed through a gate in the fence between …

Ex-Mossad deputy chief Ben-Barak says hardliner’s election as president is proof of Iran’s radicalization on nuclear, terror policies; Putin quick to congratulate ultraconservative The head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said Saturday that the election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s president would present a challenge for …

Iranians voted Friday in a presidential election marked by a low turnout and a lack of formidable rivals to the candidacy of Iran’s ultraconservative judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi. There were no official estimates of the turnout from Iran’s Interior Ministry as polling stations closed at 2 a.m. Saturday local time. …

In retrospect, Germany’s much-vaunted Hezbollah ban appears to have been little more than a publicity stunt aimed at silencing critics of the German government’s pro-Iran foreign policy. Hezbollah has effectively evaded the ban by transferring many of its activities to charities and cultural centers controlled by Iran. Iran’s main base …