Iran seeks to capitalize on distraction within the White House by ramping up its defiance of the terms of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which aimed to curb its nuclear program, by unveiling a new round of uranium enrichment. In response, Washington has unveiled a new package of...
The din of partisanship in Washington quieted briefly this weekend as figures across the political spectrum hailed the demise of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Early reports indicate intelligence cooperation from the Kurdish-dominated SDF was indispensable to the operation which killed al...
Over the past two weeks, a foreign policy debate has re-emerged within the Democratic party, stemming from President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg have begun to articulate a more forceful defense of...
As America withdraws from northeastern Syria and Turkey invades, international actors are rapidly adjusting to a new reality. Though initially neutral toward the Turkish move, a deluge of negative outcomes, including reports of ISIS detainees escaping SDF detention facilities en masse, drove Pr...
President Donald Trump surprised friends and adversaries alike this week by announcing that the U.S. would be withdrawing the roughly 2,000 troops deployed in northeastern Syria as part of the counter-ISIS campaign. While Democratic lawmakers condemned the initiative as a matter of course, an...
Tehran has doubled down on a course of diplomatic brinkmanship that may inadvertently consolidate the Western alliance. President Rouhani spurned a long-planned overture by French President Macron to broker a clandestine meeting with U.S. President Trump, while publicly expanding Iran’s list of...
In the aftermath of the mid-September attacks on Saudi oil production facilities, American and Saudi officials maintain that they do not seek military conflict with Iran, but have intensified their campaign to isolate the country diplomatically....
An apparent Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities has escalated tensions in the Gulf to new heights. American officials swiftly dismissed Houthi claims of responsibility and pointed an accusing finger at Iran. The affair seems to have quashed any possibility of American-Iranian diplomatic...
Tehran’s contest of nuclear brinkmanship with the West entered a new phase as Iran moved this week towards resuming uranium enrichment with advanced centrifuges, signaling a deepening break with the provisions of the 2015 JCPOA. For its part, the American-led sanctions regime on Iranian crude o...
The first week in September marked a new phase in the ongoing confrontation between Tehran and the West. While Israel uncovered a new Iranian base in Syria of unprecedented size, President Trump made cryptic comments over Twitter suggesting that the U.S. may have claimed another success in cont...