World powers are streaming naval and air assets into the eastern Mediterranean, deepening concerns that the Syrian conflict may further destabilize the Middle East and expand to impact nations from outside the region. The U.S. and Russia, which many have suggested are on a geopolitical collision course for a variety...

Egypt’s army-backed interim government is reportedly moving toward banning Al Jazeera’s local affiliate. Three government ministers issued a statement saying that Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr is operating “illegally, in violation to the profession’s standards and without a permit to work in Egypt,” the state-run news agency MENA reported. The ministers also said the...

Legislators in the U.S. of Representatives and Senate have begun to evaluate yesterday’s report from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, which showed that Iran is on track to lock in the technology allowing it to rush across the nuclear finish line undetected. The current projected timeline would have Iran achieving the...

A crisis in relations between Turkey and Egypt, driven in large measure by Turkish anger over the army deposing Egypt’s former president Mohammed Morsi, my be impacting not just Ankara’s regional position but it’s economic status. This week Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan scolded the head of Cairo’s Al-Azhar religious...

As the Israeli military makes preparations for a promised Syrian attack – all the while issuing public reassurances that such an attack remains uncertain – Israel’s Home Front Command is moving to ready Israel’s civilian population for potential attacks. Founded in response to attacks on the Jewish state during Operation...

Though global attention has recently been focused on the crescent formed by Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq – a region that has become a battlefield for warring Sunni and Shiite groups – the area is not the only one in which sectarian factions are battling for control. In May, a joint...

Iranian officials appear committed to reinforcing the notion that, should the West strike the Iranian-allied Bashar al-Assad regime Syria, Israel would be attacked in turn. Iranian officials have longed issued explicitly genocidal threats against the Jewish state in the context of attacks on Syria. Hossein Sheikholeslam, the director of parliament’s...

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) quarterly report on Iran was released today [PDF], containing what the U.S.-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) described as “a mixed bag of developments.” On one hand, Iran has fallen short of its stated goal to develop 55 fuel assemblies for its...

The sectarian conflict in Syria long ago drove the Sunni-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to align itself against Iran and its proxies and allies throughout the Middle East, most prominently the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal last June accused Damascus...

Middle East instability has endangered the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, where sectarian violence and threats from Hezbollah have created a situation in which contributors are withdrawing their troops. The deepening regional chaos has similarly undermined the U.N. force patrolling the Israeli-Syrian border (UNDOF), where multiple have attacks...