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With Iran Weakened by US and Israel, ISIS Rejoices and Resurges

While uncertainty lingers in the wake of President Donald Trump’s surprise ceasefire announcement in a war that has raged between Iran and Israel—and drawn in direct U.S. intervention—another archnemesis of Tehran lurks in the shadows. The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) operates both east and west of Iran and has …

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Stateless Fighters, Stated Goals: Syria’s Precarious Balancing Act

The fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 has not ended Syria’s security challenges, as episodes of sectarian violence and Islamic State resurgence persist, exacerbated by foreign fighters embedded within fragmented militia networks. Initial international efforts to expel foreign fighters fell short, leading to a policy shift toward integrating …

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Iran-Israel Conflict Shifts Regional Geopolitics

The Iran-Israel conflict confirmed a shift in the regional balance of power away from Iran, but might set the stage for further combat. U.S. and Israeli officials have defined a “new normal” in which either will take further military action if Iran tries to advance its nuclear program. Gulf and …

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What U.S. Diplomats Thought After Meeting Syria’s Jihadist-Turned-Statesman Ahmad al-Sharaa

Less than two weeks after rebel forces led by Ahmad al-Sharaa ousted Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, a U.S. State Department delegation arrived in Damascus to talk with the country’s new leader. It was a meeting few could have predicted. Roughly a decade earlier, the U.S. had declared al-Sharaa — …

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West Bank: Israeli forces arrest, injure Palestinians in raids as settlers also attack

The West Bank on Sunday witnessed heightened levels of Israeli violence with arrests, vows to continue home demolitions and settler attacks. Israeli forces carried out a series of raids on the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, arresting and injuring almost a dozen Palestinians, including children. In the Hebron governorate, …

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Iran Update, July 5, 2025

An unspecified high-ranking Iranian official cited by Amwaj Media on July 4 reported that Iran plans to resume indirect nuclear negotiations with the United States, but the conditions that Iran will reportedly present would require unspecified guarantees that the United States would not strike Iran.[1] Such a guarantee would be …

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 5, 2025

Russian forces recently advanced northeast of Pokrovsk and may attempt to advance further toward Dobropillya as part of a mutually reinforcing effort to envelop Pokrovsk and bypass Ukraine’s fortress belt in Donetsk Oblast from the west in the coming months. Geolocated footage published on July 4 indicates that Russian forces …

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After this, can Iran’s Axis of Resistance ever make a comeback?

In the aftermath of US & Israeli strikes, Iran is at a crossroads. As well as a weakened ‘Axis of resistance’ the regime faces many internal challenges. The Iranian regime recently faced a critical reckoning. For 12 days, it operated in survival mode amid escalating conflict with Israel and, by …

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