January 17, 2026
defense
Caucasus China Eurasia Europe Opinion Politics Russia South Caucasus

Statecraft and Faultlines 4: Imperial Wars, Attrition, and the Limits of Power

by Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Irina Tsukerman Irina Tsukerman is a human rights and national security attorney based in New York and Connecticut. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in National and Intercultural Studies and Middle East Studies from Fordham University in 2006, followed by a Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law in […]

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MENA News Middle East Opinion

Managing Escalation by Losing It: One Year On from America’s Yemen Mistake

By Amb. Dr. Mohamed Qubaty How restraint without Yemeni leverage turned crisis management into a doctrine of permanent escalation. One year after early warnings that U.S. restraint in Yemen was backfiring, the Red Sea crisis has become less an emergency than a condition—managed, mitigated, and endlessly postponed, but never resolved. What was once treated as […]

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MENA News Middle East Opinion

Houthis Signal a New Escalation Phase; The Missing Piece of Deterrence Lies Inside Yemen

By: Amb. Dr. Mohamed Qubaty The Houthis’ unusually explicit messaging through al-Masirah marks a dangerous turning point in one of the most volatile security environments in the Middle East. Their announcement declaring the Oman-mediated roadmap dead is not a routine expression of revolutionary rhetoric but a calculated signal of escalation. As analysts such as Fatima […]

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Europe News North America Opinion Politics Russia Ukraine

Witkoff in Moscow: Trump’s Last Diplomatic Gamble on the Ukraine War

by Rustam Taghizade As geopolitical tensions escalate over the war in Ukraine, a surprising name has emerged in the heart of US-Russia diplomacy: Steve Witkoff. Known more for his real estate ventures than foreign policy expertise, Witkoff is now headed to Moscow as a special envoy of former President Donald Trump. The goal? A last-ditch […]

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Europe Iran Israel MENA News Middle East North America Opinion Politics Russia Ukraine

Trump’s obsession with “deal-making” and the Peace Prize is causing more turmoil.

by Giovanni Giacalone US President Donald Trump’s obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize has become a paradox, as his efforts to achieve it are creating more turmoil, thereby putting at risk the path to peace in both Ukraine and the Middle East. Trump appears so desperate for the Nobel Prize that he attempts to […]

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Africa Israel MENA News Middle East News

Fear of the Egyptian Army… Israeli Generals: Alarm bells ringing from Cairo

by Vernas Hefzy At the heart of simmering regional conflicts, a recent report issued by some Israeli generals stands out as a disturbing prediction about the military future of the Middle East. With tensions rising between Egypt and Israel, signs of a potential escalation are looming. Perhaps most surprising are the military preparations undertaken by […]

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Israel MENA News Middle East News Politics

The shadow man.. Ahmed Al-Dalati who is leading the negotiations between Syria and Israel

by Vernas Hefzy (originally appeared in Masr Times in Arabic) Vernas Hefzy Following the victory of the Syrian armed opposition factions that ended the rule of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, I interviewed Brigadier General Ahmed al-Dalati, a leader in the Syrian military operations department. We discussed the new government’s vision, the issue of minorities, […]

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Israel MENA News Middle East Opinion

How not to win a war: negotiations, procrastination and terror-empowerment

by Giovanni Giacalone The war initiated by the IDF in Gaza to release the hostages and eradicate Hamas has been dragging on for over sixteen months now. Around 58 hostages, two dozen of whom possibly alive, are still in the hands of the Palestinian terrorist organization which hasn’t been defeated or eradicated yet. The war […]

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GCC Israel MENA News Middle East News North America Opinion Politics

Trump is no ally of Israel and Netanyahu needs to act now

by Giovanni Giacalone It is widely known how the Biden administration was quite problematic for Israel with its pressure to limit the IDF’s actions against Hamas, the entrance into Rafah, cutting the weapon shipment and imposing continuous “humanitarian aid” into Gaza that went straight into Hamas’ pockets. However, sometimes things can only get worse and, […]

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Iran Israel MENA News North America Opinion Politics

Examining the Impact and Implications of the Bandar Abbas Explosion

by Turan Rzayev As is known, on April 26, an explosion occurred in the Shahid Rajaee Port in Bandar Abbas, located in the Hormozgan province of southern Iran. According to the information provided by the “Tasnim” agency, the explosion was caused by the detonation of a fuel storage tank. It was reported that the blast […]

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