Orientul Mijlociu

Established In: 1928

Established By: Hassan al-Banna

Also Known As: Society of the Muslim Brothers

Country Of Origin: Egypt

Leaders: Mohammed Badie

A new BBC investigation has found that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recruited former Al-Qaeda members to provide security in Yemen, and funded American mercenaries to carry out political assasinations in the country.

On February 13, 2024, Channel 1 [Iran] aired a report from an IRGC ballistic missile drill, which simulated an attack on Israel’s Palmachim airbase. The report showcased a combined attack from land and sea, in which ballistic missiles were launched against a model of Palmachim airbase, which was built in the Iranian desert. According to the report, Palmachim is Israel’s largest airbase, and it is the main base for its F-35 warplanes. The reporter said that “this is an illustration of what the IRGC can do […] if Iran’s territory is attacked.”

Former Iranian Nuclear Chief Ali-Akbar Salehi discussed in a February 11, 2024 interview that aired on Nasim TV (Iran) whether Iran is capable of producing a nuclear bomb. He said that Iran has crossed “all the scientific and technological nuclear thresholds” necessary to create a nuclear bomb.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Seyed Hassan Nasrallah held a meeting in Beirut on Saturday.

The top Iranian diplomat, who arrived in Beirut on Friday evening, held negotiations with Nasrallah on Saturday morning.

Israeli air strikes killed 28 Palestinians, including ten children, in Rafah early on 10 February, after the Israeli military intensified air raids ahead of a coming ground invasion.

The killings came hours after aid agencies warned that huge numbers of Palestinians will die if Israel moves forward with a planned large-scale military offensive on the southern Gaza border city, where some 1.3 million Palestinians are living, including hundreds of thousands in tent cities.

Al-Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah had a side job as a commander in Hamas’s anti-tank missile units until 2022, evidence retrieved by the IDF revealed, the IDF’s spokesperson for Arabic media, Avichay Adraee, announced on Sunday.

The United States and its partners have imposed additional sanctions on Iran and its axis of resistance partners to try to deny them the resources to continue their ongoing campaign of armed attacks.

Sanctions imposed since mid-January have targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iranian allies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and companies and persons helping these groups move money and weapons around the region.

‘Houthi leaders are not immune from this type of targeted killing,’ says Ken Katzman

The assassination of a militia leader in Iraq this week showed the strength of US intelligence and could mark the start of a campaign of targeted killings, according to a former CIA official.

The Houthi attacks on Red Sea commercial shipping are adversely affecting China’s economy, causing China’s leaders to question the benefits of relations with Iran.

The Red Sea crisis has demonstrated that militant factions in the Middle East can undermine Beijing’s interests just as they can challenge the United States and its allies.