By Wesam Bahrani 

West Bank aggression fuels annexation fears

TEHRAN – Escalating violence and sweeping crackdowns across the West Bank intensify concerns over mounting Zionist territorial control.

By staff writer 

The strategic loom: Weaving Saudi Arabia into a U.S.-Israel framework

TEHRAN – The Tuesday meeting at the White House between U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was less about ceremony than about strategy. 

By Shahab Sarmadi

Israel escalates ‘barbaric’ attacks on Lebanon

TEHRAN – Israel continues to violate the ceasefire reached with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in November 2024, launching fresh air raids that have left over a dozen civilians dead. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Washington pressuring Lebanon’s president and army

BEIRUT — Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented political and diplomatic offensive targeting its highest institutions: the presidency and the army.

By Shahrokh Saei

A Trojan Horse for Gaza

10 reasons the UN Gaza resolution masks injustice behind diplomacy

TEHRAN – The United Nations Security Council has approved a U.S.-drafted resolution on Gaza, hailed in Washington as a diplomatic breakthrough. But for Palestinians and many around the world, it's another failed plan—one that prioritizes policing over justice and control over freedom.

By Shahrokh Saei 

China's Fujian and USS Gerald R Ford: Stability vs. coercion on the high seas

TEHRAN – China’s Fujian aircraft carrier, commissioned earlier this month, marks a historic milestone in the country’s naval modernization and stands as a symbol of reassurance. More than a warship, Fujian embodies Beijing’s rise through self-reliance, stability, and a commitment to peace, projecting confidence without aggression and ensuring maritime order remains predictable and secure. 

By Wesam Bahrani 

New report exposes U.S. atrocities in Iraq during occupation

TEHRAN – More evidence has emerged revealing that U.S. troops carried out horrific civilian killings in Iraq that were long concealed.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Hezbollah will counter financial stranglehold amid hybrid war

BEIRUT—With a sharply worded warning, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem cautioned the Lebanese authorities and Banque du Liban (BDL) against taking any step that would constrict Al-Qard Al-Hassan institute, describing it as nothing less than the “social lung” of a country whose state structures have all but collapsed. 

By Wesam Bahrani 

Rising Hamas popularity in Gaza 

TEHRAN – Despite over two years of U.S.-backed genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip, American media reports Hamas has seen its popularity increase.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Hezbollah’s unshakable echo: Mourning the mind that engineered resistance discourse

BEIRUT—With the assassination of Hajj Mohammad Afif Al-Naboulsi by the Zionist regime in an air raid in November last year, the Resistance loses not merely a media official, but one of the rare architects who shaped collective consciousness in times of war and calm alike. 

By Wesam Bahrani

Bombing and coming winter worsen plight of Gaza survivors

TEHRAN — Israeli strikes and bitter cold are driving Palestinians into deeper hardship as humanitarian needs surge.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Fortresses of fear: Israel’s walls and the myth of security

BEIRUT - Since its establishment, the Israeli entity has relied on walls, both physical and ideological, as central pillars of its security doctrine. The project itself emerged from the logic of “preventive isolation”:  fortifying settlements against an Arab environment portrayed in Zionist discourse as inherently “hostile.” 

By Shahrokh Saei 

Decoding the deception: How Trump’s ceasefire blocks Palestinian statehood

TEHRAN – U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan for Gaza has been promoted as a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and eventual statehood. Yet Israeli officials have made clear that such statehood will never be accepted, exposing the truce plan as a diplomatic pretense designed to advance U.S. and Israeli agendas under the guise of peace.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Lebanon’s central bank bows to Washington

BEIRUT — When Banque du Liban (BDL) unveiled Circular No. 3, it dressed it up in the usual technocratic jargon—“compliance,” “monitoring,” and “risk mitigation.” 

By Shahrokh Saei 

BBC at a crossroads: From Trump dispute to Gaza bias allegations

TEHRAN – The recent dispute between US President Donald Trump and the BBC has drawn renewed attention to the broadcaster’s editorial practices, highlighting questions of accountability and internal oversight. 

By Wesam Bahrani 

U.S. blueprint envisions divided Gaza

TEHRAN – The future of Gaza is being shaped by external powers rather than the people who live there.

By Shahab Sarmadi

U.S. proposal for Gaza: ‘Board of Peace’ or cover for occupation?

TEHRAN – President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, presented by Washington as a blueprint for stability and reconstruction, has drawn significant criticism for functioning as political cover for Israel’s ongoing military campaign. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad

How Lebanese actors empower Israel

BEIRUT — Washington’s pressure campaign against Hezbollah is not new, but its latest tone is unmistakably sharper.

By Wesam Bahrani

Post-election Iraq review

TEHRAN – As Iraq concludes a hard-fought election, attention is now turning to the challenge of forming a new government.

By Wesam Bahrani

Sudani scores “major victory” in Iraq elections

TEHRAN – A coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani reportedly comes first in Iraq’s parliamentary elections.

By Shahrokh Saei

Imperial ambitions at sea: U.S. military escalation against Venezuela

TEHRAN – The deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Caribbean has marked a dangerous escalation in U.S. military activity and sharply heightened tensions with Venezuela. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Israel escalating assault on Lebanon’s environmental security

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s forests, farmland, and green expanses are once again under siege. The recent wave of wildfires sweeping across the country recalls the devastation of 2010, when hundreds of hectares of pine and oak vanished in smoke and ash.

Iraq votes

Elections stand as reaffirmation of democratic resilience and reminder of struggle for sovereignty

TEHRAN – Iraq’s parliamentary elections have been more than a routine exercise in democracy. The elections unfolded against a backdrop of regional wars, shifting alliances, and the enduring weight of foreign interference that has shaped Iraq’s modern history. While the vote will determine the composition of parliament for the next four years, the deeper contest is over sovereignty itself — whether Iraq’s future will be decided by its people or constrained by external agendas.

By Shahab Sarmadi 

Sharaa–Trump summit: U.S.–Israeli interests at play

TEHRAN – Monday’s meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Syrian leader Ahmed alSharaa in Washington has been described as a milestone and historic. For the first time since Syria gained independence from France in 1946, a Syrian head of state was welcomed into the Oval Office with full honors.