Orientul Mijlociu

More than a week of protests in Iran reflects not only worsening economic conditions, but longstanding anger at government repression and regime policies that have led to Iran’s global isolation.
Regime security forces have thus far failed to quell the unrest with limited use of violence, but leaders have signaled they will again use massive armed force if necessary against protesters.
Regional leaders assess that a collapse of the regime, although unlikely, would usher in a long period of instability in Iran, but also lessen the threat posed by Tehran to other regional and global actors.
President Trump has threatened to intervene directly to support the protests, an unprecedented U.S. stance which might embolden demonstrators or, alternatively, discredit them as U.S. puppets.

Intervenția străină în Iran, care are o populație de 90 de milioane de locuitori, ar putea duce la destabilizarea și haosul în regiune.

Această opinie a fost exprimată într-un comentariu pentru Ukrinform de către cunoscutul expert turc în afaceri internaționale și jurnalist Güngör Yavuzaslan, scrie Ukrinform.

La multiplication des liens entre Al Shabaab et les Houthis favorise les deux groupes militants et contribue à accroître les menaces maritimes et terrestres de part et d’autre du golfe d’Aden.

Les preuves d’une collaboration croissante entre Al Shabaab en Somalie et les Houthis du Yémen augmentent les risques pour le trafic maritime dans la mer Rouge, le golfe d’Aden et l’océan Indien occidental, tout en renforçant la capacité de nuisance des deux groupes.

HRANA – Nationwide protests in Iran continued on their twelfth day, Thursday, January 8, 2026, according to reports collected by HRANA. Demonstrations and protest actions were recorded in at least 46 cities across 21 provinces. At the same time, a wave of strikes and market closures was reported, particularly in Kurdish regions, with dozens of cities in Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, and Ilam provinces joining the strikes.

Who calls the shots in Iran on economic policy, security, and domestic calls for reform? A look at the government’s organization chart indicates how complicated the answer is.

Iran’s system of government is not quite a democracy, nor a theocracy. Founding Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini developed its animating doctrine, known as guardianship of the jurist, in the years before the Islamic Republic’s establishment in 1979. Khomeini posited that a just government was possible if religious scholars sat atop it to ensure consistency with Islamic law. This system was put into place with a constitutional referendum after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The organs of a modern republic—a unicameral legislature (the majlis), executive led by the president, and judiciary—were enveloped by a clerical system. (Most of Iran’s clerical hierarchy, however, remains outside this official structure, based in Qom rather than the capital, Tehran.)

Israel faces mounting challenges: a stalled ceasefire in Gaza, rising Hezbollah threats in Lebanon, and a critical security opportunity with Syria.

With ceasefires unraveling on nearly every front, Israel is once again confronting the unstable reality of the Middle East.

Protests in Iran raged Friday night in the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show, despite a threat from the country’s theocracy to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines off to the world.

At least 65 people have been killed in the protests that began in late December over Iran’s ailing economy and have morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in years.

An internal Hamas assessment suggests the EU’s former top diplomat in the Palestinian territories pursued a personal approach to Gaza that crossed Brussels’ red lines

An internal Hamas document seen by Euractiv suggests that the EU’s former envoy to the Palestinian territories, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, pursued positions that diverged from official EU policy and were viewed favourably by Hamas leaders in Gaza.

The U.S. is trying to force Lebanon and Syria to normalize with Israel, but neither country sees an advantage in this.

On January 6, the Israeli journalist Barak Ravid published an article at Axios, reporting that the United States had presented Syria and Israel “with a new proposal for a security pact between them that includes establishing a joint economic zone on both sides of the border …” This followed several hours of talks between the sides in Paris the same day, during which the Americans also proposed the establishment of a joint U.S.-Israeli-Syrian “fusion cell” in Amman “to oversee the security situation in Southern Syria and host further talks on demilitarization and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.”

The statement reaffirmed the army’s commitment to being the sole actor responsible for maintaining security in Lebanon, with an emphasis on the area south of the Litani River

Lebanon’s government and army have not made sufficient efforts to disarm Hezbollah, and this is evidenced by the terror group’s efforts, with Iran’s help, to rearm and reestablish its infrastructure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated on Thursday afternoon.