During a landmark visit to Islamabad in April 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif launched the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under the umbrella of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Initially valued at $46 billion, the investment pledges soon swelled to $62 …

As the world focuses on Israel’s war in Gaza, northwest Syria is undergoing a significant political upheaval that could lead to major instability. For the last three months, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an armed Sunni Islamist group that governs more 4.5 million people in the Idlib region, has been facing …

A year after the restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two countries are working to ease regional tensions in the Middle East in exchange for promises of improved bilateral cooperation. But strains persist in the relationship between Riyadh and Tehran, and the two capitals are using …