Syrian Refugee Return: A Defining Moment
Freedom’s arrival in Syria remains deeply fragile. Even as the country’s new rulers gain diplomatic recognition, goodwill, and early relief from Western sanctions, Syria...
When Conflict No Longer Moves Oil
Despite escalating conflicts, sanctions, and strategic rivalry across key producing regions, the global oil market increasingly behaves less like a system gripped by scarcity...
Starving the Russian War Machine?
The U.S. Department of the Treasury framed the October sanctions against Russian energy firms as an effort to “starve Putin’s war machine.” Running in...
Iran’s Energy Crisis and Tehran’s Strategic Turn to Russia and China
Following a summer of widespread blackouts and record heat, and in the wake of June military strikes by Israel and the U.S. on its...
Morocco’s Economic Rise—and Its Stubborn Contradictions
Morocco’s recent wave of youth-led protests over unemployment and inequality has laid bare the contradictions behind the Kingdom’s modernization success. It has built world-class...
Israel’s Strike in Doha: A Stress Test for Gulf Mediation and U.S. Security Commitments
On September 9, 2025, Israel staged a lethal airstrike in the heart of Qatar’s capital, Doha, targeting Hamas political leaders housed in a busy...
Between Fragility and Reset: The Future of Iran–Pakistan Relations
Iran and Pakistan have long occupied an uneasy space in one another’s strategic calculus, linked by geography yet divided by history, ideology, and external...
China’s Gulf Strategy Tested by the Israel-Iran Conflict
Since becoming a net oil importer in 1993, China has deepened its ties with the Gulf, transforming the region from a peripheral energy supplier...
Opening the Gates: Trump’s Syria Gambit and the Fragile Road to Recovery
On May 13, 2025, in a surprise announcement during his first post-inauguration Gulf tour, President Donald Trump declared that he will be “ordering the...
Cracks in Iran’s Resistance Economy Amid Renewed Maximum Pressure
Can Iran’s resistance economy withstand both the tightest U.S. sanctions in years and the emerging promise of Oman-brokered discussions? After three rounds of indirect...