U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein yesterday expressed concerns that Iran is working to destabilize the country. Feierstein’s comments echo those of Yemen’s chief of political security, Ali Al-Ahmadi, who last month accused Tehran of having “exploited Yemen’s turmoil to expand” its influence in the country’s north. Other Sana’a officials,...

Iranian press outlets are conveying information to the effect that several Iranians recently released in a prisoner swap between Damascus and Syrian rebels were Revolutionary Guard commanders. Last September, Revolutionary Guard Commander-in Chief Mohammad Ali Jafari confirmed that “a number of members of the Qods force are present in Syria.”...

Countries bordering Syria are feeling the effects of the country’s nearly two-year war. Actions both by the regime in Damascus and opposition forces seeking its overthrow have forced Syria’s neighbors to scramble as they work to contain blowback from the crisis. Tactics by Bashar al-Assad’s regime have created waves of...

Two Saudi fishing vessels have been seized by the Iranian coast guard, heightening tensions between the two regional rivals. Tehran is increasingly at odds with the Gulf Arab states, and in December the Gulf Cooperation Council lashed out at the Islamic republic for interfering in the internal affairs of Gulf states and for engaging...

A just-announced unity deal between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions risks permanently undermining peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, according to Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hamas has been at odds with Fatah at least since the Iran-backed terror group violently expelled Fatah officials from...

Syria’s Foreign Ministry is lashing out at U.N. Middle East peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for “flagrant bias,” after Brahimi told a BBC interviewer that Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was resisting the aspirations of the Syrian people. Brahimi, who was meeting in Geneva this week with senior U.S. and Russian officials, also called for political...

The U.S. Treasury has outlined a number of mechanisms that Iran is using to evade sanctions meant to induce the country to increase transparency around its atomic program, which is widely suspected of having a clandestine weapons component. The Iranians are using, according to Treasury officials, private exchange houses and...

Voting has opened for Israel’s January 22 election, with approximately 4,000 Israeli envoys casting their votes at 96 foreign missions around the world. Israel’s embassy in Wellington, New Zealand was the first to open its polls and early voting will conclude at the consulate in Los Angeles on Friday morning....

NATO officials have condemned as “reckless” the renewed use of ballistic missiles by Syrian army forces battling opposition troops. The attacks come as British officials have announced that they will seek to amend a European Union weapons embargo on Syria in order to arm rebel forces. The decision is complicated...

Australian officials announced yesterday that the country will expand its sanctions against Iran, which are targeted at encouraging Tehran to increase transparency around its atomic program. Canberra imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Iran in 2008, and Foreign Minister Bob Carr linked the new restrictions to ongoing Iranian noncompliance wth U.N. Security...