By Wesam Bahrani 

U.S. opposition to al-Maliki: Political and economic pressure on Iraq

TEHRAN – President Donald Trump’s warning to withhold U.S. support if Nouri al-Maliki returns as Iraq’s prime minister goes beyond personal criticism.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Women as currency: Epstein files and the moral fraud of the Western order

BEIRUT — The renewed release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein has been framed in Western corporate media as a triumph of transparency and accountability.

The choreography of cruelty: Rafah's ‘trial’ reopening and the performance of siege

TEHRAN – The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt reopened on Sunday “on a trial basis” after being nearly completely sealed for more than two years under the Israeli blockade. The limited reopening, announced by Israeli authorities, underscores the ongoing control Israel exercises over Palestinian life, even amid a so-called ceasefire.

Trump’s tower of deceit: Epstein’s files pull back the curtain

Over three million pages of DOJ files fuel critical allegations, placing the U.S. president at the heart of Epstein's elite sex scandal network

TEHRAN – The newest release of the Epstein files has once again pulled U.S. President Donald Trump, along with a long list of powerful figures, into the center of a story that refuses to fade. The U.S. Department of Justice — the federal agency responsible for enforcing the law and overseeing the FBI — published more than three million pages of documents, along with thousands of images and videos, on Friday. What emerged is a portrait of Epstein’s world that is both familiar and newly disturbing: a network of wealth, secrecy, and influence that stretched across politics, entertainment, business, and even intelligence circles.

By Wesam Bahrani 

Rafah border crossing: What the reopening reveals about Israel’s next moves

TEHRAN – The scheduled opening of the Rafah border crossing on Sunday is another sign of the Israeli regime’s larger scheme. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

How is Washington’s oil-first strategy redrawing Libya’s geopolitical map?

BEIRUT — The recent visits of Massad Boulos, adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump for the Middle East and African affairs, to Tripoli and Benghazi have ignited intense debate inside Libya.

By Shahrokh Saei 

China leads the agenda: Xi–Starmer talks highlight the limits of US unilateralism

TEHRAN — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to China has highlighted a broader shift in global diplomacy, showcasing the contrast between nations willing to engage Beijing and the unilateral approach pursued by US President Donald Trump. 

By Wesam Bahrani 

Trump’s threats against Iraq could backfire

TEHRAN – The U.S. president’s aggressive rhetoric about Iraq’s political future may ultimately produce the opposite of its intended effect.

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Lebanon’s 2026 budget: A state between social anger, political confusion, and regional fire

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Parliament has approved the 2026 state budget by 59 votes in favor, 34 against, and 11 abstentions, closing three turbulent days of debate that exposed far more than fiscal disagreements. 

By staff writer

Israel’s admission of Gaza death toll shatters its own denial

TEHRAN — A quiet admission from a senior Israeli military official has opened a door Israel has tried to keep shut for two years. By acknowledging that around 71,000 people have been killed in Gaza, the official effectively confirmed what the Gaza Health Ministry has been reporting since the start of the war.

By Wesam Bahrani 

Israel's Rafah closure is a death sentence for Gaza's patients

TEHRAN – Israel's continued closure of the Rafah crossing amounts to a death sentence for thousands of Palestinian patients and wounded trapped in the Gaza Strip.

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Lebanon’s paradox: An unfinished state and a necessary resistance

BEIRUT — The central challenge facing Lebanon today is often misrepresented as a confrontation between the “state” and the “Resistance.” In reality, it is a struggle between a state that has yet to be fully realized and a defensive necessity imposed by persistent danger.

By staff writer 

A truce in words only: Israel keeps bombing Gaza

TEHRAN – Israel’s killing of two Palestinians in Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighborhood on Tuesday reflects a familiar pattern. Israel is once again violating the October truce it claims to uphold. On paper, the ceasefire exists. On the ground, Israeli gunfire, airstrikes, and shelling continue. 

By Wesam Bahrani 

U.S. interference in Iraqi politics 

TEHRAN – Iraq stands at a critical point as parliament prepares to elect a new president and form the next government. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Lebanon: Rising pressures amid Syria’s instability and Israeli threats

BEIRUT — With the Israeli enemy maintaining continuous attacks from the south and the resurgence of ISIS and other extremist groups in Syria, Lebanon faces unprecedented security challenges. 

By Ranjan Solomon

Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza and the monetization of ruins

GOA — Gaza today is not emerging from conflict; it is still being crushed by its consequences. Entire neighbourhoods have been erased, civilians displaced en masse, famine conditions allowed to fester, and allegations of international crimes hang unresolved over the ruins. Any serious discussion of Gaza’s future would begin with a ceasefire, accountability, and the restoration of Palestinian political agency. Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” begins elsewhere. It begins with money, authority, and control.

By staff writer 

The ceasefire illusion: Israel’s cover for calculated aggression in Lebanon

TEHRAN — Despite the ceasefire agreement signed with Israel in November 2024, the promised peace remains a distant hope for the people of Lebanon. Israel’s military has effectively transformed a signed truce into a period of controlled aggression, conducting near-daily strikes that have claimed hundreds of innocent lives.

By Shahab Sarmadi 

Minneapolis: Ground zero of American hypocrisy

Alex Pretti’s death exposed a US that champions freedom abroad even as federal agents take the lives of its own citizens at home

TEHRAN — Anger is surging across the United States — particularly in Minneapolis — after federal agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American ICU nurse, during a chaotic immigration raid. His death has become a symbol of what critics describe as a violent and uncontrolled federal crackdown — one that is now claiming the lives of U.S. citizens.

By Wesam Bahrani 

Nouri al-Maliki nominated for Iraqi premiership

TEHRAN – In a major development, Iraq’s Coordination Framework has officially nominated former Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki as its candidate to lead the next government.

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Economic fragility and militarized escalation in Trump’s foreign policy

BEIRUT — Since his return to the White House, President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has been characterized by confrontation, escalation, and a growing reliance on military force. 

No breakthrough in Abu Dhabi as Western policy toward Ukraine faces new questions

TEHRAN — The first trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States since the start of the Moscow–Kyiv war in 2022 have concluded in Abu Dhabi with no sign of progress. The two-day meeting, which wrapped up on Saturday, brought the three sides together for direct discussions for the first time in nearly four years. But the core disagreements that have defined the conflict from the start remain firmly in place, and none of the parties suggested that a breakthrough is anywhere close.

By Wesam Bahrani 

What Palestinians endure in Gaza amid Israel’s continued demolition and siege

TEHRAN — Palestinians in Gaza are hoping for real changes that could ease their suffering and help them survive the harsh reality they face. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

The US and Lebanon’s trilateral trap

BEIRUT — The United States is intensifying pressure on Lebanon to abandon the existing military “mechanism” overseeing the southern front and move instead toward a Washington-sponsored trilateral committee that would pave the way for political-security arrangements with Israel. 

By staff writer 

A state in protest: Is Minnesota becoming the fault line of US immigration policy?

TEHRAN — Recent events in the US state of Minnesota have exposed the deep tensions created by President Donald Trump’s immigration strategy. The mass protests on Friday, the widespread business shutdowns, and the willingness of thousands to gather in dangerous cold weather show a community reacting forcefully to a federal operation it sees as excessive and harmful.

By Wesam Bahrani 

‘Board of Peace’: A new tool for American control

TEHRAN – U.S. President Donald Trump officially unveiled the so-called “Board of Peace” for Gaza at a signing ceremony in Davos on Thursday. 

By staff writer 

Abu Dhabi talks spotlight Western missteps in Ukraine

TEHRAN — The first trilateral engagement between the United States, Ukraine and Russia since the outbreak of the 2022 conflict is taking place in Abu Dhabi at a moment when Western governments are reassessing the trajectory of a war that has become strategically, economically and politically burdensome. In whatever direction these discussions develop, their very initiation reflects a deeper reality: The US and Europe are seeking to unwind a crisis that their own longstanding policies helped set in motion and then prolong.

By Wesam Bahrani 

Israeli wars deepen domestic anxiety 

TEHRAN – Rather than increasing settlers’ sense of security, the Israeli regime’s aggression across the region has had the opposite effect.

Trump’s Greenland obsession turns Davos into a test of Europe’s resolve

TEHRAN — President Donald Trump’s appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday was a display of geopolitical brinkmanship, delivered with the swagger of a leader who treats alliances as leverage rather than partnerships. 

By staff writer 

Fox in the henhouse: Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ lets Bibi off the leash

TEHRAN — The decision to include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a so-called U.S.-led “Board of Peace” for Gaza highlights the deep incoherence of Washington’s approach to Israel’s war against the enclave and its aftermath.

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

From ceasefire to coercion: How Lebanon is dragged into a surrender framework

BEIRUT — What is unfolding around Lebanon’s so–called “ceasefire oversight mechanism” is not a misunderstanding nor a technical dispute—it is a deliberate campaign of pressure.