Regime leadership shrewdly did not attempt to suppress the women-led protests in Iran with massive deployments of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and shoot-to-kill orders. Such a response might have run the risk of galvanizing even more Iranian men to join the protests.
The Financial Action Task Force is planning to ramp up oversight of crypto providers, sources say.
Countries that fail to implement anti-money laundering guidelines for cryptocurrencies could be added to a “grey list” that includes Syria and Haiti under a global watchdog’s plans to tighten scrutiny of virtual assets.
On October 10, Iranian loitering munitions rained over Ukraine’s urban centers, including Kiev. Two weeks later, Israeli forces struck an Iranian drone factory in Syria (Al Arabiya, October 23). This demonstrated how Iran’s drone program is now beyond Iran, both in terms of production and operational impact. Iran has become a drone-exporting nation and Iranian drones are creating new flashpoints in different geopolitical axes.
The potential for cooperation in certain areas, like military technology, may look promising. But Iran cannot be counted upon to really help the Russian economy withstand the impact of sanctions.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, relations between Russia and Iran have flourished. Having been hit by a new raft of tough Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow set about looking for alternative partners among other traditionally anti-Western countries—including to bypass trade restrictions—and Iran looks set to be one of the most promising.
Egypt-Turkey talks to normalize their relations were halted in the wake of Ankara’s recent oil deal with Libya’s Tripoli-based government.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Oct. 29 that talks with Turkey to heal their yearslong political rift have come to a halt over Turkish policies in neighboring Libya.
No U.S. military campaign in the Middle East has demonstrated the importance and benefits of working with partner Special Forces more than the fight against ISIS. Operating alongside local forces in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere, the U.S.-led coalition was able to destroy the caliphate and severely degrade the capabilities of ISIS. Should the future of U.S. security cooperation in the Middle East be focused on building the counterterrorism and counterinsurgency capabilities of indigenous Special Forces? What are the challenges and opportunities of this approach to U.S. security cooperation in the region? What lessons can be learned from the anti-ISIS fight? Our three speakers, who have in-depth expertise on and direct experience in this subject, will help us address these issues and many more.
Iran must be punished for its “complicity in Russian terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a speech on Sunday evening.
He added that “absolutely everyone who helps Russia prolong this war must bear responsibility for the consequences of this war along with it.” Zelenskyy said, “The whole world will know that the Iranian regime helps Russia prolong this war, and therefore prolong the effect of those threats to the world provoked precisely by the Russian war.
As an officer deployed aboard the battleship Wisconsin during Operation Desert Shield in 1990, James Holmes recalls how no one back then thought the U.S. military would ever need an aircraft carrier in the Middle East.
The 31st Arab League summit concluded in Algiers this week in a manner expected of a hopeless gathering strangely touted as a great reunion of the Arab world after a two-year hiatus.
There was little expectation that this year’s convention would defy the odds and become an avenue for decisive or transformative shifts, let alone much-needed bridge-building in an increasingly uncertain, discordant world.
The nationwide uprising across Iran is entering its 51st day on Saturday after the regime’s oppressive security forces committed yet another massacre this time in the city of Khash in Sistan & Baluchestan Province of southeast Iran. Despite the lethal crackdown and killing of at least twenty locals in Khash, people of this province and cities throughout the country are standing their ground firm and relentlessly pursuing their escalating protests to bring an end to the mullahs’ rule once and for all.