Politics & Security - AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

politics and security cover image

Politics & Security

US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while aboard Air Force One en route to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin on June 5, 2026.

Breaking | Last Updated: June 10, 2026, 8:34 am

Trump says Iran has ‘taken too long’ for deal, signals escalation

The president warned Iran that there would be a "price" for delaying a deal.

People ride motorcycles past a large billboard showing portraits of Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L), and slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) in central Tehran on June 8, 2026.

Analysis

From Beirut to Bab el Mandeb, Iran tests new deterrence strategy

Tehran views its latest clash with Israel as a watershed moment and proof that any attack on its regional allies can trigger direct and immediate retaliation.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Aamir QURESHI / AFP via Getty Images

Explainer

Turkey names new envoys to Iran, Oman, Qatar in regional reshuffle

Turkey’s latest ambassadorial changes mark a partial return to career diplomacy in Tehran and the Gulf as Ankara maintains a balancing act amid the Iran war.

Latest News

What Lebanon army chief’s visit to Pakistan means

Motorcyclists ride past a billboard featuring Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (C) and Army Chief and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir (L) in Islamabad on April 20, 2026, ahead of anticipated US-Iran peace talks.

Analysis

Turkey's probe into pro-secular tycoon goes beyond crude Kurdish joke

Rahmi Koc

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Hezbollah calls on Lebanon to 'correct' relations with Iran

KAWNAT HAJU / AFP via Getty Images

Breaking

Last Updated: June 9, 2026, 5:51 pm

US military strikes Iran after Apache helicopter downed off Oman

Jalaa MAREY / AFP via Getty Images

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

US President Joe Biden (L) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) arrive for the family photo during the Jeddah Security and Development Summit (GCC+3) at a hotel in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 16, 2022.

Analysis

US-Saudi diplomacy gives lifeline to Palestinian leadership, two-state solution

How big is Assad’s Suwayda problem?

Week in Review

Andrew Parasiliti

By Week in Review , Andrew Parasiliti

Iraqis drive past electoral billboards and placards of candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Karrada district, Baghdad, Iraq, Sept. 19, 2021.

US welcomes conviction of Iranian, 4 Iraqis for killing American citizen

Stephen Troell, an aid worker in Baghdad, was killed in November when gunmen opened fire on his car.

A policeman watches as people cool off in the water at el-Kettani beach in the Bab el-Oued suburb, Algiers, Algeria, Aug. 15, 2020.

Two Moroccan-French tourists killed by Algerian coastguard

The tourists had strayed into Algerian waters. The incident could further inflame longstanding tensions between Morocco and Algeria.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the inauguration of the new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, on August 17, 2023. (Photo by AMIR COHEN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by AMIR COHEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Unprecedented breakdown in Israel-US channels as Netanyahu bars ministers from visiting Washington

Under strict orders from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant did not go anywhere near Washington or the Pentagon on his US visit this week. “Such things have never happened,” a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor.

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

MAXIM SHEMETOV/AFP via Getty Images

Russia hosts Turkey's Fidan, presses for guarantees on grain deal

Turkey and Russia's foreign ministers haggled over a compromise for the revival of the Ukrainian grain deal ahead of the upcoming presidential summit next week.

Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri (R), receives Amos Hochstein, the US special presidential coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security, Beirut, August 30, 2023.

UNIFIL mandate extended as US envoy visits Lebanon

US envoy Amos Hochstein met with Lebanese officials to follow up on the maritime border agreement with Israel that allowed offshore gas exploration in Lebanese waters and to likely discuss UNIFIL's extension.

An Iranian long-range Ghadr missile displaying "Down with Israel" in Hebrew at a defense exhibition in Isfahan, February 8, 2023.

Iran claims to foil Israeli plot against its missile operations

The announcement follows Iranian officials saying they had dismantled “Zionist-linked” cells across the country and amid an escalating proxy war between Iran and Israel.

Libyan Foreign Affairs Minister Najla Mangoush holds a press conference at the end of the Arab foreign ministers meeting in the capital Tripoli, on Jan. 22, 2023.

Libya’s political crisis runs deeper than Israel debacle

The diplomatic firestorm unfolding in Libya comes as the United States is pushing the North African country to hold long-awaited nationwide elections.

Israeli soldiers stand guard as police check a car damaged in a reported ramming attack at the Bell checkpoint near the settlement of Beit Horon, on the occupied West Bank, east of the central Israeli city of Modiin, November 2, 2022.

Israeli-Palestinian tensions rise with fresh attacks in Jerusalem, West Bank

With tensions high in Israeli and the West Bank following attacks against Israelis, Hamas is threatening to launch protests on the Israel-Gaza border.

Iran protest

Iran claims to dismantle Israeli-linked ‘Zionist’ cells across the country

The announcement follows another attack on a Shiite shrine in the country, as well as renewed Iranian threats towards Iranian Kurdish groups in Iraq.

A man snaps a picture of a red rose raised by a protester.

Will Syria’s Assad resort to violence as Suwayda protests grow?

No longer neutral, Suwayda province's Druze minority now demand the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

Palestinian militants march during the funeral of Palestinians killed in clashes the previous day in the Israeli military operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on July 5, 2023.

What's behind rare intra-Palestinian clashes in West Bank

The rare clash between the Palestinian Authority and local Palestinians came amid increased Israeli security raids in the territory.