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Politics & Security

Palestinian Hamas militants arrive to secure the area as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), search for the last two remaining bodies of hostages -an Israeli soldier and a Thai national- from under the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern of Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2025.

Analysis

How Hamas disarmament deal may test Iran's regional strategy

A possible Hamas decision to disarm would represent more than a Gaza development, testing Iran's decades-old strategy of projecting power through regional allies.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Mourners carry one of the bodies of members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) who were killed earlier in Diyala in central Iraq by US-Saudi strikes, during the funeral in Baghdad on July 29, 2026. The US-Saudi strikes killed at least 20 militants, including Iranians, according to the Hashed al-Shaabi. The US and Saudi Arabia said the strikes were in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities. (Photo by murtadha ridha / AFP via Getty Images) /

Analysis

Renewed Iraq attacks test Zaidi’s push to disarm Iran-backed militias

An attempt by Iraqi government forces to seize weapons belonging to an Iranian-backed faction encountered resistance, raising questions about Prime Minister Ali Zaidi’s pledge to disarm militias by Sept. 30.

Mustafa Salim

By Mustafa Salim

Fighters lift flags of Iraq and paramilitary groups, including al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah, during a funeral in Baghdad for five militants killed a day earlier in a US strike in northern Iraq, on Dec. 4, 2023.

Analysis

Iran-linked militias seek to draw Iraq into regional war

“Iran’s logic is the logic of war,” a Gulf regional official tells Al-Monitor.

Week in Review

By Week in Review

Latest News

Explainer

Estimated 60,000 migrants cross from Morocco into Spanish territory: What we know

Ceuta

Analysis

No Iran commitment, no Trump endorsement: Netanyahu leaves US empty-handed

US President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, DC, on July 31, 2026. President Trump is traveling to Camp David in Maryland to hold a cabinet meeting and later to Bedminster, New Jersey to spend the weekend at his golf club. (Photo by Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images)

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Diplomatic Correspondent

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

Ezgi Akin

Associate Editor (Turkey)

In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO

Ben Caspit

Israel Columnist

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Iraq politics

Iraq's parliament sets date for selecting president from Kurdish ranks

The selection of Iraqi president have been delayed because of the sharp division between the two main Kurdish parties over which candidate should fill the role reserved for their group.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Analysis

The Takeaway: Done deal? Iran nuclear talks appear back on track

Putin opens door to Syrian fighters in Ukraine; Egyptian students’ harrowing escape from Ukraine; Hamas keeps quiet on Ukraine while building mega-mosques; Lebanon’s cancer crisis; and more … in about 1,300 words.

Andrew Parasiliti

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Joe Snell

By Andrew Parasiliti , Elizabeth Hagedorn , Joe Snell

Demonstrators carry placards during a gathering by cancer patients to protest against the shortage of medicine that is threatening the treatment of tens of thousands of patients, outside the headquarters of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 26, 2021.

In Lebanon, deterioration of health system endangers cancer patients' lives

Faced with the shortage of medication and the increase in hospital costs, cancer patients in Lebanon are finding it increasingly difficult or impossible to afford treatment.

Children play on a swing on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in the opposition-held southern city of Daraa, Syria, Aug. 21, 2018.

Child kidnappings haunt civilians in Syria’s Daraa

Civilians in Syria’s southern province of Daraa are living in constant fear amid increasing cases of kidnappings.

Erdogan Putin

Will Erdogan draw lessons from Putin's Ukraine mistakes?

As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan watches Russian forces flounder in Ukraine, he may be rethinking his own ambitions — or concluding that Turkey is in a better spot than ever.

Russian rapper Oxxxymiron

In Istanbul, fleeing Russians mull next step of self-exile

Thousands of Russians fearing the political and economic fallout of the Ukraine war have fled to Istanbul, with most planning to travel on to Europe or former Soviet republics.

RONEN ZVULUN/AFP via Getty Images

Mixed feelings in Israel over Bennett’s mediation efforts on Ukraine

The Israeli opposition is criticizing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as overeager to drag Israel into the Russia-Ukraine quagmire.

Saudi drones

Middle East struggles against drones, despite billions in defense spending

Military unmanned aircraft, both custom-designed and retrofitted, pose an increasing threat to security in the region, and states' defense capabilities have not kept up with advances in attack technology.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo

By Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo

Richard Ratcliffe protests outside the Foreign Office while on hunger strike, part of an effort to lobby the UK foreign secretary to bring his wife home from detention in Iran, on Oct. 25, 2021 in London, England.

Iran releases Iranian-British citizens as nuclear talks wrap up

Two Iranian-British citizens are on the way home after the United Kingdom settled a decades-old debt to Iran.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s pro-Western policy reversal reveals Erdogan’s dilemma

Turkey's position over the Russian invasion of Ukraine has resonated as a pro-Western shift in Ankara’s foreign policy, but Erdogan needs to go the extra mile.

Sub-Saharan migrant women learn how to use a computer at a center run by the Organization for the Support of Migrants, Medenine, Tunisia, June 15, 2021.

Tunisia activists claim authorities target sub-Saharan students

Sub-Saharan students in Tunisia decry racially motivated arrests as police impunity increases.

Mahmoud Abbas addresses UNGA in New York

Abbas strips Palestinian rivals of diplomatic passports

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has taken to revoking the diplomatic passports of his political opponents and granting them to his supporters.