Food security

Farmers roast harvested wheat using fire in a field on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, on May 18, 2026.

Analysis

How Syria’s wheat fields turned into first battleground over reconstruction

A battle over wheat prices could be the first political contest over who reconstruction will benefit.

Haddon Barth

By Haddon Barth

Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (R) arrives at the Burgenstock resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne on June 21, 2026.

Iran rejects Trump's claim frozen funds will buy US soybeans: What to know

Trump said Wednesday that the US would release “some” Iranian frozen funds and would use them to purchase corn, wheat and soybeans from American farmers.

French Trade & Invest Commissioner for United Arab Emirates and Middle East and Business France's regional director for the Middle East Axel Baroux. — Business France

Interview

Franco-Gulf investment holds firm despite Iran war, French official says

French investors are reallocating capital toward strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence and technology rather than pulling out of the region altogether.

Axel Baroux

France’s trade and investment commissioner for the UAE and Middle East

Janti Soeripto helps at a community kitchen serving hot meals to displaced families arriving from El-Fasher.

Interview

As Sudan war drags on, US-Iran conflict compounds humanitarian crisis in Darfur

Save the Children US President and CEO Janti Soeripto said delivering aid in Sudan remains extremely difficult, with supply trucks often delayed for weeks or months even after entering the country.

Janti Soeripto

President and CEO of Save the Children US

Latest News

Analysis

MENA wheat importers face food security risks as Hormuz crisis festers

Crops of wheat and barley in Terbol village on May 10, 2022, in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Pistachios reach highest prices in eight years amid Iran war

An Iranian grocer sells pistachios imported from Iran at a Persian products shop in the Gulf emirate of Dubai on July 10, 2019. (Photo by Karim SAHIB / AFP) (Photo credit should read KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran war deepens Gaza crisis as prices soar, aid falters

Children and families gather to receive free meals shortly before Iftar during the holy month of Ramadan at a displacement camp in central Gaza City, on Feb. 27, 2026.

Daoud Kuttab

By Daoud Kuttab

In Amman, reporting on Palestinian politics

'No meaningful protection': Israel’s new Gaza aid rules raise data, security risks

People walk through a heavily damaged street in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Oct. 12, 2025.

A boy sits outside the entrance to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) building complex in Gaza City, on Sept. 6, 2025.

Interview

UNRWA plans Turkey office to boost Gaza, Syria aid as pledges dip

Speaking exclusively to Al-Monitor, UNRWA’s Tamara Alrifai said the upcoming Turkey office would help the agency to expand its operations not only in Gaza but also in Syria.

Tamara Alrifai

Tents sheltering Palestinians from Gaza City displaced by the Israel-Hamas conflict are pitched by damaged buildings at the Qatari-built Hamad City residential complex, northwestern Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, Sept. 22, 2025.

Water 'more precious than gold': Palestinians fleeing Gaza City face perilous journey south

The Israeli ground invasion of Gaza City has caused massive waves of displacement and intensified struggles to survive with little or no water, shelter, food, or sanitation.

This picture shows pumpjacks in an oil field and smoke plumes rising in the background, following reported Turkish drone strikes near the town of al-Qahtaniyah in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province, close to the border with Turkey, on Nov. 23, 2022.

Exclusive

UK-based oil firm victim of standoff between Damascus, Syria’s Kurds

Gulfsands Managing Director John Bell outlines his company’s plans and Syria’s energy prospects in an exclusive interview.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Yemeni boys walk on a flooded road during a rally in solidarity with Palestinians in the Houthi-run capital Sanaa on Aug. 1, 2025.

Yemen: Flash floods injure 10+ in Aden as climate toll mounts

Yemen has experienced deadly flooding in recent years, further impacting the ongoing displacement crisis in the country.

Nadeen Ayoub

Culture

Meet Nadeen Ayoub, first Palestinian woman to compete for Miss Universe

The 27-year-old beauty queen, crowned Miss Palestine in 2022, will take the stage in Thailand this November, marking the first time Palestine is represented at the global competition since its founding in 1952.

Sudan's army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Sudan’s army chief meets Trump adviser amid US peace push: Reports

The meeting is just the latest in a series of international attempts at mediating an end to the Sudanese civil war, all of which have failed to yield a lasting agreement.

People carry boxes of relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as displaced Palestinians return from an aid distribution center in the central Gaza Strip on May 29, 2025.

After Hamas ban and deadly ambush, Gazans wary of GHF aid jobs

Hamas banned all cooperation with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) weeks after armed men executed several GHF workers in Khan Younis.

JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images

Interview

Israel’s former Germany envoy: Arms embargo 'warning sign' of growing isolation

Berlin’s embargo over the Gaza City offensive signals a rare fracture in one of Israel’s closest strategic partnerships, former Israeli Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff says.

Jeremy Issacharoff

Jeremy Issacharoff

Former Israeli ambassador to Germany

Peoples waits near a humanitarian aid distribution point at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on July 20, 2025, amid a deepening food crisis.

Pentagon awaits White House decision to help ramp up Gaza humanitarian aid

The White House has not yet signed off on proposals to have the US military support humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza as the enclave's population faces spreading starvation.

People who fled the Zamzam camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control queue for food rations in a makeshift encampment in an open field near the town of Tawila in Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13, 2025.

UN: Sudanese children 'skin and bones' as 250,000 in El Fasher face starvation

The warnings come as reports claim that Colombian mercenaries have taken control over the nearby Zamzam refugee camp.

Palestinians shove to receive a hot meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025.

'A complete farce': Gaza residents say Israel's aid policy shift has done little as hunger grows

While global media outlets continue to show images of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip, we — residents of this besieged coastal enclave — have yet to feel the tangible affect of these convoys as our children’s stomachs remain empty.

People carrying aid parcels walk along the Salah al-Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, used by food-seeking Palestinians to reach an aid distribution point set up by the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF, on June 25, 2025.

Analysis

As US envoys head to Gaza, details scant on Trump's 'food centers'

Despite criticism, the Trump administration is sticking with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as its answer to the growing humanitarian catastrophe.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights