The US recognizes China’s influence and Iran’s dominance in West Asia, but its sluggish and ineffective responses not only hamper Washington’s ability to counterbalance the eastward shift but also inflicts damage on its dwindling reputation as a trusted partner.

Behind the raft of OPEC+ production decisions riling the collective west lies a tight Russian-Saudi strategy and enhanced Russian-Iranian energy cooperation. A curious thing happened in Vienna on Sunday just as the 35th Ministerial Meeting of OPEC+ was about to start at its headquarters. Three princely western news organizations – …

UK contractors sought to create a covert newsroom to strategically flood Jordan’s mainstream and social media with a stream of self-serving propaganda. Leaked submissions to the British Foreign Office reviewed by The Cradle expose how the UK infiltrates Jordan’s communications structures at the highest levels, in turn exerting vast, insidious …

In an exclusive interview, The Cradle speaks to former Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who reveals the challenges, foreign conspiracies, and controversies that defined his truncated two-year tenure, amidst political and economic turmoil that shook the nation. Adil Abdul-Mahdi, prime minister of Iraq from October 2018 to May 2020, emerged …

A. The Front Lines Two noteworthy trends are informing the front lines in Ukraine. First, the Ukrainian military is now staging a series of small-to-medium-scale offensive actions. Second, Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechen fighters are replacing Wagner units at an increasing rate. The Ukrainian Military Conducts Offensive SkirmishesA careful assessment of various …

Despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad being welcomed back onto the international stage, all is not well at home. His country is broken into three parts, which, at best, are in a state of uneasy coexistence and at worst are stuck in a low-intensity active conflict. In the country’s northwestern Idlib …

The Biden administration will soon submit an interagency strategy to Congress on combating Syria’s illicit Captagon drug trade, which comes hot on the heels of the diplomatic rapprochement between Damascus and Arab states. The administration will unveil this strategy in the coming weeks, said US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State …

To most Syria observers, the accelerated Saudi-led drive to rehabilitate the Assad regime is not a surprise. After all, the Saudis and the other allied Arab regimes in the region did not have essential contradictions with the Syrian regime in 2011, when the anti-Assad uprising broke out. The involvement of …

Washington Needs an Endgame in Ukraine Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was a moment of clarity for the United States and its allies. An urgent mission was before them: to assist Ukraine as it countered Russian aggression and to punish Moscow for its transgressions. While the Western response …

Iran’s Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “used the Islamic concept of ‘Taqiyya’ to describe the regime’s decision to accept the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with the West. Taqiyya means the permissibility to deny or conceal one’s real beliefs to secure a worthy goal.” — iranintl.com, May 20, 2023. “Khamenei’s emphasis …