• Syria one year after Assad: Jolani’s makeover, minority panic, and Israeli strikes 2025-12-08 20:30

    By Shahrokh Saei

    Syria one year after Assad: Jolani’s makeover, minority panic, and Israeli strikes

    TEHRAN – On December 8, 2024, Syria entered a new phase when Damascus fell, and the Ba'ath Party’s long rule ended. Bashar al-Assad departed for Russia, where he was granted asylum. For many Syrians, Assad’s exit was neither a moment of triumph nor defeat, but the beginning of a new uncertainty. The vacuum left behind opened the door for forces both domestic and foreign to shape Syria’s trajectory.

  • The tail that trained the dog to heel

    By Garsha Vazirian

    The tail that trained the dog to heel

    From Pollard’s tea party to hidden microphones in Gaza “aid” center—same leash, same blood

    TEHRAN – They built the room together. America paid for the walls, the fake grass carpet, and the giant posters of Trump’s twenty-point plan. America flew in the logisticians who know how to move rice through war zones. America even invited a few Dutch and Emirati officers to keep up the pretense of multilateralism.

  • Lebanon faces a choice between real power and foreign illusions

    By Sondoss Al Asaad

    Lebanon faces a choice between real power and foreign illusions

    BEIRUT—Lebanon’s political and security landscape has long been defined by a paradox: the nation’s true defenders often operate outside formal institutions, while the official state struggles to assert authority, maintain sovereignty, or protect its people.

  • Merz’s appeasement of Netanyahu will only embolden war criminals

    By staff writer

    Merz’s appeasement of Netanyahu will only embolden war criminals

    TEHRAN - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Israel for the first time since taking office in May. Merz’s visit comes just days after Germany decided to lift a three-month suspension on arms exports to Israel.

  • Caribbean chessboard: U.S. move to check Russia and China

    By staff writer

    Caribbean chessboard: U.S. move to check Russia and China

    Is the U.S. effort to overthrow Maduro limited to Venezuela?

    TEHRAN – When U.S. forces began striking vessels in the Caribbean in early September, Washington said it was fighting drug cartels. Yet almost 90 people have been killed, no narcotics have been shown as evidence, and the scale of deployment, including the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, makes clear this is not a routine mission.

  • Lebanon’s neutrality debate in a shifting regional context

    By Sondoss Al Asaad

    Lebanon’s neutrality debate in a shifting regional context

    BEIRUT — Let’s try, for a moment, to imagine a Lebanon where words mean what they say. In that alternate universe, “neutrality” would imply rejecting foreign meddling of any kind, “interference” would refer to bombing residential areas, and “sovereignty” might include the radical notion of objecting to drones overhead.

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