Reports

Mustafa Al-Kadhimi — British citizen, former news columnist, and ex-intelligence chief — has now improbably risen to Iraq’s highest office. His opening was created thanks partly to the weakness of Iran, which is dealing with an economic crisis and the recent loss of General Qassem Soleimani to an American drone strike. In his first few ...

Iran’s state has never been both as strong and as weak as it is now. Its strength comes from its influence in the region. Tehran wields tremendous sway over the governments in Baghdad, Sana’a, Beirut and Damascus. Yet Iran is facing discontent at home and among its neighbors, as protests ...

Reports that the recent U.S. and Iranian attacks against each other are leading to war significantly exaggerate the situation. Each country’s moves are part of long-standing strategies focused on influencing the other’s behavior. As such, similar activities can be expected in the near future. A military conflict, however, would benefit ...

Starting last November, Iranians have been taking to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction with the country’s leadership. Over the past decade, several such movements have sprung up, only to ultimately be stamped out. Achieving regime change, or even significant reform, would entail depriving powerful, privileged groups of tremendous benefits. ...

With the recent focus on Iran-West tensions, it is worth considering who exactly the decision makers are in Iran’s highly complex structure of power and whom the current system benefits. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds tremendous sway, he is not all-powerful. Understanding the roles of the various players ...

The U.S.’s killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani is a huge blow to the Iranian regime, and Washington had valid reasons for making the move. Though many fear the repercussions, the U.S. could not shy away from self-defense for such reasons. And for now, it looks likely that Iran will ...

The single most important development in the Middle East has been the end of Syria’s civil war, which was unequivocally won by the Baath regime. Even the hammer blows of a determined religious opposition could not destroy the post-World War I system that created Syria, Iraq and Jordan as Arab ...

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Israel are all vying for supremacy in the Middle East through direct confrontation and proxy wars. This may trigger an all-out conflict with dire consequences for the region and for Europe. Reversing the logic of war and replacing it with cooperation is difficult but ...

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s to-do list reads like Mission Impossible. Staff his cabinet with honest officials; rebuild war-torn Sunni areas in the north; placate an angry Shia south that is desperately short of water and power; deal with Kurdish demands; reintegrate Iranian-backed militias into civilian life; balance carefully ...

Iraq’s new prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, was reportedly hand-picked at meeting in Beirut by the leaders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hezbollah. Yet the man they chose is far from a radical. Close examination of Mr. Abdul Mahdi’s career shows him to be an experienced, honest and gutsy ...

The accidental downing of a Russian military plane by Syrian anti-missile defense, which coincided with Israeli air force jets’ presence in the area, highlights the danger of the increasingly open proxy warfare between Israel and Iran. The number of parties involved – Israel, Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah – points ...

It may already be too late to avoid another armed conflict in the Middle East. Iran has systematically upgraded Hezbollah’s ability to strike at strategic and civilian targets deep inside Israel. Increasingly, the only viable option for Israel’s military to neutralize this threat is another invasion of southern Lebanon.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s disastrous decision to press ahead with an independence referendum has allowed the Iraqi federal government to reassert control over Kirkuk and its vital oil fields. But an even bigger consequence of Baghdad’s resurgence could be a potential conflict with its erstwhile sponsor, Tehran. Any such confrontation would quickly ...