Der Spiegel yesterday published analysis – headlined in part “International Investors Flock to Tehran” – describing a scramble by companies and nations to re-enter Iran’s market in anticipation of the removal of sanctions. The paper quoted Daniel Bernbeck, head of the German-Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Tehran, characterizing the financial...

The Wall Street Journal yesterday published an extensive report, based on previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence, assessing that Hezbollah is smuggling advanced anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and surface-to-surface missiles into Lebanon. The moves illustrate how both Hezbollah and Israel are using Syria’s civil war as cover for what increasingly is seen as a complex and...

The Washington Post this weekend began openly worrying that the political crisis shaking Turkey – in which a corruption probe driven by judiciary officials linked to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen has ensnared elites from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), who have in turn responded by moving to...

A massive car bomb – which yesterday tore through Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold of Dahiyeh killing at least five people and injuring scores – marked the point at which Lebanon succumbed to the almost three year Sunni-Shiite conflict raging in neighboring Syria, according to an extended regional analysis published yesterday in the Weekly Standard....

The Times of Israel reported Tuesday that Hamas is being forced to reposition itself in relation to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood – of which it is an off-shoot – in the wake of Cairo’s recent decision to brand the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, with the shift likely to deepen an emerging consensus that the...

Bloomberg this week reported that the open political warfare rocking Turkey, which has pitted the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) against followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, is endangering the country’s economy. The mounting power struggle between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the judiciary is turning the country’s stock market...

A new oil contract being negotiated between China and Iran, which would see the Chinese state-trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp purchase light crude from Tehran, could according to Reuters boost imports from the Islamic republic “to levels not seen since tough Western sanctions were imposed in 2012,” in the process undermining Western efforts...

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that, in contrast to previous years in which successfully Israeli startups had focused on mergers and acquisitions, 2014 is shaping up to be a year in which similar companies attempt to go public. “I think 2014 will be the year for more...

Israel overnight Tuesday released 26 Palestinian prisoners convicted of terror-related crimes, the third of four such gestures designed to boost U.S.-backed peace talks. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had been explicit with Secretary of State John Kerry last spring that the Palestinians would not sit down for peace talks without a broad...

Elements inside Lebanon on Sunday fired a volley of rockets into Israel, drawing Israeli artillery fire reportedly targeting the launch site. The attack comes a few weeks after a cross-border sniper attack in which a Lebanese soldier targeted and killed an Israeli soldier driving to base. That attack caused analysts to...