The United States is turning increasingly to economic pressure as tensions rise on two major fronts, imposing new sanctions on Iran while its trade relationship with Canada moves closer to a wider confrontation. The latest Iran measures target oil traders, vessels linked to Iran’s so-called shadow fleet and networks accused of supporting missile and weapons…
Georgia’s decision to reject the latest EU sanctions on Iran is more than a disagreement over one sanctions package. It is another sign that Tbilisi is becoming increasingly willing to put its own economic and strategic interests ahead of closer alignment with European foreign policy. The Georgian government declined to join the European Union’s latest…
The latest escalation between Iran and the United States is creating a new problem for Gulf countries: staying out of the war may no longer be enough to keep them safe. Iranian armed forces have warned Gulf states against providing any assistance to the US military, saying that allowing American forces to use their territory,…
The latest US-Iran confrontation is no longer just about Tehran and Washington. It is now putting Oman, one of the region’s key diplomatic intermediaries, directly in the middle of the crisis. President Donald Trump has threatened military action against Oman if it interferes with US efforts to reach an agreement over the Strait of Hormuz….
President Donald Trump has once again made Iran’s nuclear program the center of his policy, saying preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains his “number one Goal”. His statement comes at a particularly important moment because the 60-day period created by a US-Iran memorandum has now expired without a broader agreement. That makes Trump’s…
Two Iranian-launched drones targeting the private office of Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and the home of a senior security official in Erbil may not have caused casualties, but the choice of targets makes the attack more significant than another drone incident. Kurdish counterterrorism authorities said the Hadid-110 explosive drones were launched from Iranian…
Six months into the war between Iran and the US-Israel alliance, Tehran is presenting the conflict as a victory, but the claim says more about Iran’s political strategy than it proves about the battlefield. Major General Ahmad Vahidi, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Iran had defeated what he described as the…
The reported Houthi ground offensive around Mokha and north towards Al-Khawkhah is significant for a reason that goes beyond Yemen’s civil war: control of this coastline could give the Houthis greater leverage over one of the world’s most important maritime corridors. Recent reporting confirms that Houthi attacks on Mokha have intensified, including repeated missile and…
The latest US-Iran confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz is becoming a battle not only over a strategic waterway, but over who gets to define what “control” actually means. President Donald Trump says the United States has “total control” of the Strait, declaring that the American naval presence is a “wall of steel” and suggesting…
Global oil markets are once again being pushed higher by the standoff between the United States and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, with Brent crude climbing sharply as hopes of a quick reopening of the strategic waterway fade. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has raised its 2026 Brent price forecast to about $87 per…
