Author: M Barbu

While persuading Iran to roll back its nuclear programme at this stage may be difficult, the US and its allies can and should seek to reinforce Tehran’s perception that a decision to weaponise the programme would increase Iranian isolation and insecurity.

In recent months, unsettling rhetoric from senior Iranian individuals over the country’s nuclear programme – alongside continued Iranian advancements in this area and escalating tensions in the Middle East – has highlighted the urgency of finding a resolution to the now decades-old Iranian nuclear question. The options available to the US and its partners for inducing a roll-back of Iran’s programme are limited, given that economic threats and incentives, as well as security assurances, will be difficult to make meaningful and credible. However, Iran still appears to perceive some benefit from maintaining a threshold nuclear programme rather than developing a nuclear weapons capability. The US and its partners should leverage remaining carrots and sticks to reinforce this assumption, making clear to Tehran that it would be worse off with a nuclear weapons capability than its current threshold nuclear status.

On the morning of Saturday, June 29, 2024, a man injured a policeman after shooting him in the neck with a crossbow outside the Israeli embassy in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. The officer returned fire, killing the assailant, who was named as Milos Zujovic, a native of the Serbian town of Mladenovac born in 1999. Zujovic had converted to Islam and began calling himself Salah Al-Din. The Israeli embassy was closed at the time of the attack and none of its employees were harmed.[1]

Analysis: While Turkey has halted all trade with Israel amid the Gaza war, Azerbaijan continues to supply Tel Aviv with oil.

Amid global attention on pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the world, notably on US university campuses, another significant boycott campaign has been brewing in Turkey, albeit against Azerbaijan’s ties with Israel.

As tensions between Israel and Hezbollah escalate, the specter of a full-scale war, with the potential to draw in the United States and Iran, demands the US’ immediate attention. The Biden-Harris Administration has tasked, in response, White House Senior Advisor Amos Hochstein with the responsibility of mediating efforts to de-escalate the conflict and bring stability to the Lebanon-Israel border.

Like a wounded animal, vicious but aimless, Israel is lashing out at Lebanon. But, as Emad Moussa writes, Hezbollah won’t be deterred by wider regional war.

The prospect of an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon reached new heights on July 3 after the Israeli army assassinated senior Hezbollah commander, Taleb Abdullah, outside Tyre.

In-depth: Over 20,000 children in Gaza are lost, detained, disappeared, or buried in mass graves or under rubble amid Israel’s relentless war.

A report published by British aid group Save the Children last week found that up to 21,000 children are estimated to be missing in Gaza, with at least 17,000 thought to be unaccompanied or separated from their parents and some 4,000 likely trapped beneath the rubble of their homes, schools, and hospitals.