U.S., Israel and Lebanon sign framework agreement as Hezbollah rejects direct talks and demands unconditional Israeli withdrawal
June 27th, 20260 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States, Israel and Lebanon announced Friday that they have signed a framework agreement aimed at ending months of fighting along the Israeli-Lebanese border, marking what officials described as the first step toward a permanent ceasefire and a broader peace agreement. The announcement came as Hezbollah...
U.S.-Iran memorandum opens 60-day window for peace, but Lebanon remains a dangerous test
June 19th, 20260 One hundred and ten days after the failed U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, a historic memorandum of understanding was signed remotely on June 17, between the United States and Iran to end the conflict between the two countries. President Trump signed the agreement during a dinner at the Palace of Versailles in France...
Trump announces end to Iran war, leaving Israel stunned
June 12th, 20260 WASHINGTON / TEHRAN / BEIRUT — After a week marked by military confrontation and intense diplomacy, President Trump announced what he described as a “great settlement” with Iran, signaling a potential turning point in a conflict that had threatened to engulf the broader Middle East. The announcement followed two nights of military...
Trump pushes for Iran deal while Lebanon remains a central battleground
June 5th, 20260 Despite repeated statements by President Trump predicting an imminent agreement to end the conflict with Iran, developments over the past week offered little indication of a genuine breakthrough. Instead, regional tensions remained high amid what political observers describe as determined Israeli efforts to undermine any potential deal...
U.S.-Iran ceasefire extension appears within reach as Trump seeks broader deal, Israeli aggression ravages Lebanon
May 29th, 20260 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Signs of a potential diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Iran gained momentum over the past week, despite limited military exchanges between the two sides that remained below the threshold of a broader conflict and appeared designed to strengthen negotiating positions rather than derail ongoing...
Heading toward disaster in the Middle East
May 29th, 20260 U.S. policy in the Middle East has been so problematic because policymakers refuse to consider its impact on the Arab people. With Israel, it’s a different story. Over-attentiveness to Israeli concerns and a lack of sensitivity to Arab reaction to our actions has caused deep fractures between Arabs and the U.S. and within the Arab...
Self-engineered decay: Why Israel’s political collapse cannot be separated from its war crimes
May 29th, 20260 For those unfamiliar with the intricate machinery of Israeli politics, the unanimous 110-0 vote to dissolve the Knesset on May 20 appears to be an earth-shattering event. On the surface, it looks as if the days of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition of far-right extremists are numbered. The reality, however, is far more...
Trump softens tone toward Iran as negotiations gain momentum
May 22nd, 20260 Since returning from China, President Trump has gradually adopted a noticeably softer tone toward Iran, tempering his rhetoric day after day while still keeping military threats as an option on the table. Only days earlier, Trump claimed he had been “one hour away” from authorizing renewed military strikes against the Islamic...
Iran holds ground as U.S.-China talks yield few breakthroughs
May 15th, 20260 Against the backdrop of President Trump’s visit to China, the Middle East remained trapped in a temporary status quo, with Iran still caught in a state of neither war nor peace with the United States, while resistance forces in southern Lebanon continued targeting invading Israeli troops using fiber-optic drones, whose documented...
Strait of Hormuz tightens the noose on Trump; will he resume the war on Iran?
May 1st, 20260 The language of war has once again overtaken all other discourse in the escalating U.S.–Iran confrontation, as President Trump renewed his call for Tehran to “surrender” after reviewing newly proposed military options targeting the Islamic Republic. This comes as Iranian forces continue to maintain effective control over the Strait...
Five laws and standards that require the U.S. cut off weapons to Israel
May 1st, 20260 By Prem Thakker A new memo circulating on Capitol Hill details why the U.S. is obligated to cut weapons to Israel – even if Israel wants to buy them with its own money. A memo is circulating in Congress detailing five laws and international standards that obligate the United States to stop sending or selling weapons to...
Trump extends Iran truce as Lebanon remains in “no war, no peace” state
April 24th, 20260 As a fragile ceasefire continues to hold across multiple Middle East fronts, developments over the past week revealed a clear reluctance by President Trump to return to full-scale war with Iran. Speaking from the White House on Thursday, Trump announced a three-week extension of the ceasefire in Lebanon, just two days after unilaterally...
Faith vs. Force: Trump–Pope Leo feud escalates over Iran conflict
April 17th, 20260 A rare and escalating confrontation between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV has exposed deep global divisions over the ongoing war on Iran, placing political power and moral authority on a direct collision course. At the center of the dispute is a fundamental disagreement over war, diplomacy and the role of religion in global...
10-day ceasefire, wider conflict: From Beirut to Hormuz, war deepens
April 17th, 20260 A fragile 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect Thursday evening, offering a temporary halt to more than a month of devastating war between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, even as the broader U.S.–Israel confrontation with Iran continues to expand militarily, diplomatically and economically across multiple fronts. The...
The Lebanon conspiracy: Massacres, negotiations and a new order
April 17th, 20260 Israel’s latest war on Lebanon is not only being waged from the air. It is being reinforced politically from within, as Beirut moves in step with U.S.-Israeli efforts to isolate Hezbollah and weaken Iran’s negotiating position. In a previous article, we examined the seven messages that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu......
‘Deadliest 10 minutes’: Israeli bombing kills hundreds across Lebanon
April 10th, 20260 BEIRUT – In one of the deadliest episodes in Lebanon since the end of the civil war in 1990, Israeli airstrikes killed more than 300 people and wounded more than 1,100 in a matter of minutes, according to Lebanese officials, leaving entire neighborhoods in ruins and overwhelming hospitals across Beirut. The strikes, which hit more...
Iran–U.S. talks begin in Islamabad as Israel’s war crimes in Lebanon threatens collapse
April 10th, 20261 Forty days after refusing to negotiate with the United States, and amid President Trump’s escalating rhetoric and foul language, which reached the level of threatening to erase an entire civilization from the face of the earth, Iran agreed to begin indirect talks with the Americans in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, setting 10 key......
Yes, Iran is playing chess, but only after rewriting the rules of the game
March 27th, 20262 By Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo The origins of chess are contested, but few dispute that while the game began in India, it was the Sassanian Persian Empire that refined it into a recognizable strategic system. It was Persia that codified its language, symbolism and intellectual framework: the shah (king), the rokh (rook) and...
The impact on the many fronts of the war on Iran will continue
March 27th, 20260 The costs associated with any war — losses of lives, treasure and security — are to be expected. And so it is with the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. It was unnecessary. It has been massive. And it has been waged without any clear objective or strategic purpose. Though only a few weeks old, and still too early to project how it will play...
From Palestine to Iran: What Arab and Muslim silence really reveals
March 26th, 20260 By Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo I have always found it interesting, and at times revealing, when seasoned activists and intellectuals in the West, including those who see themselves as deeply committed to Palestine, raise the same familiar point: Arab governments must stand up to Israel and the United States in solidarity with their...
Strains emerge between Trump and Netanyahu as Iran war escalates, energy crisis deepens
March 20th, 20260 WASHINGTON, D.C. — After nearly three weeks of intense military confrontation with Iran, early signs of divergence between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are beginning to surface, raising critical questions about the trajectory of the war, its broader regional consequences and the absence of a clear......
MAGA divide deepens as top official resigns over Iran war driven by Israeli pressure
March 20th, 20260 WASHINGTON — In the first major rupture within President Trump’s administration over the war on Iran, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned from his post Tuesday, declaring that he could no longer support the conflict and accusing Israel of misleading the United States into war. Joe Kent becomes the first...
U.S.–Israel war on Iran enters fourth week amid stalemate, energy crisis and rising regional risks
March 20th, 20260 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S.–Israel war against Iran has entered its fourth week without achieving any meaningful breakthrough in subduing the Islamic Republic, while no clear path toward a near-term resolution has emerged. Instead, fears are mounting over widening regional consequences and escalating global risks, as President Trump......
U.N. Security Council condemns Iran’s regional attacks as war spreads; Russia and China abstain
March 13th, 20260 The United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution condemning Iranian missile and drone attacks on several Gulf states as the rapidly escalating war between Iran, Israel and the United States spreads across the Middle East, raising fears of a broader regional confrontation and a global economic shock. The resolution —...
The war Iran prepared for: How Tehran is raising the cost of war
March 13th, 20260 Iran is pursuing a multi-layered strategy—military, economic, political, and diplomatic—to raise the cost of war and prevent regime change. Iran’s strategy in the current war As the war on Iran continues to expand across multiple fronts, Tehran appears to be pursuing a complex strategy that combines military escalation, economic......
