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August 9, 2026

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif in Mecca after signing the defense pact, Aug. 7, 2026.

Analysis

How Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan pact puts Iran's regional strategy to test

The defense agreement is not an anti-Iran bloc, but it may reflect a deeper regional adjustment to years of Iranian asymmetric warfare as well as uncertainty over US security commitments.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

US President Donald Trump (R) meets with Jordanian King Abdullah II in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, DC, Feb. 11, 2025.

Analysis

Jordan shores up US lifelines as Iran targets Amman’s reliance on Washington

Already a leading recipient of US aid, Jordan has secured fresh funds from the United States as the Iran war tests Amman and Washington's partnerships.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Hussein FALEH / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

As US rethinks regional presence, Israel shifts focus to destabilizing Iran

Uncertain how to interpret the American regional redeployment, Israel is focusing on efforts to destabilize the Iranian regime and stop its nuclear program.

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

Latest News

Explainer

Iran-Oman deal spurs Hormuz hopes as Red Sea threats evolve

Khaled ZIAD / AFP via Getty Images

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Diplomatic Correspondent

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

Sabena Siddiqui

In Karachi, reporting on South Asia, Middle East, Iran

A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Benjamin Houghton

In Durham, reporting on China in the Middle East

Rahim Rahimov

In Baku, reporting on Middle East-Caucasus ties

Mehrnaz Samimi

In Washington, DC, reporting on Iranian culture

Israeli soldiers stand on concrete blocks near the border with Lebanon January 29, 2015. Israel and Hezbollah signalled on Thursday their rare flare-up in fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border was over, after the Lebanese guerrillas killed two Israeli troops in retaliation for a deadly air strike in Syria last week. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY CONFLICT) - RTR4NHGX

Hezbollah, Israel claim victory, reset deterrence

Nasrallah steps back from confrontation with Israel after attack; Iran sanctions in perspective; Netanyahu plan may backfire; Kurdish victory in Kobani a setback for Turkey; Are Iraqi Kurdish land grabs sowing future conflict?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (L) shake hands, as EU envoy Catherine Ashton watches, before a meeting in Vienna November 20, 2014. Tehran has yet to explain away allegations it conducted atomic bomb research, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency said on Thursday, four days before a deadline for Iran and six world powers to reach a deal on the Iranian nuclear programme. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger (AUSTRIA - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY) - RTR4EXYQ

Iran's Zarif backed by foreign policy heavyweight

Iranian diplomat Sadegh Kharazi, who has recently received permission to start his own political party and has family ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has thrown his support behind the nuclear talks.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jafari holds a press conference in Tehran on September 16, 2012. Jafari said members of his elite special operations unit, the Quds Force, are present in Syria and Lebanon but only to provide "counsel." AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/GettyImages)

Hezbollah strike was 'minimum response,' warns Iran commander

The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also stated that Israel should 'await a stronger response.'

A Palestinian police officer loyal to Hamas pushes back Salafists during a protest against satirical French weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, outside the French Cultural Centre in Gaza city January 19, 2015. Dozens of Jihadist Salafi men rallied in Gaza on Monday to condemn continued publication by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo of cartoons deemed offensive to Islam's Prophet. Charlie Hebdo published a picture of Mohammad weeping on its cover last week after gunmen s

Moderate Islam pushes back extremism

Terrorist operations carried out by radical Islamic groups around the world and in the Middle East have had the unintended effect of promoting moderate Islam, particularly in Iran.

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 14: (R-L) U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) speaks as Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), committee ranking member Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and committee chairman Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) listen during a confirmation hearing for Nominee for the Federal Reserve Board Chairman Janet Yellen (3rd L) before Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee November 14, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Yellen will be the first woman to head the Federal Reserve if confirmed by the Senate and will

Congress takes first step on Iran sanctions

The Senate Banking Committee voted 18-4 in favor of repercussions if talks drag on.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech under portraits of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) and Iran's founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (R), on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Islamic revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death, at his mausoleum in a suburb of Tehran on June 3, 2014. AFP PHOTO / ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)

Rouhani: Khomeini chose peace when necessary

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini knew when it was time to make peace.

Smoke from Israeli shelling covers the Lebanese town of Al-Majidiyah (L) on the Lebanese border with Israel as the town of Al-Ghajar is seen on the right on January 28, 2015. Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility on Wednesday for an attack against a military convoy in an Israeli-occupied border area. AFP PHOTO / ALI DIA (Photo credit should read ALI DIA/AFP/Getty Images)

Hezbollah's tactical shift against Israel

Hezbollah is opening another front against Israel in the Golan Heights, where it can blame other organizations for possible escalations.

Iranian worshippers demonstrate after the weekly Friday prayers on January 23, 2015 in Tehran to protest against a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that was published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an edition issued a week after 12 people were killed by Islamist gunmen at its Paris offices. Iran denounced the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo but has also condemned as "insulting" and "provocative" its publication last week of a new cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ M

Iran responds to caricatures with 'I love Muhammad' campaign

Iranians have rallied around the hashtag campaign "I love Muhammad" on social media following Charlie Hebdo's printing of another caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.

Iran names new UN envoy

Iran's new choice for UN envoy, Gholamali Khoshroo, has a history of facilitating dialogue between faiths and cultures.

Sergei Kiriyenko (R), head of the Russian state nuclear monopoly Rosatom, and head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation Ali Akbar Salehi shake hands during a signing ceremony in Moscow, November 11, 2014. Russia will build two new nuclear power plant units in Iran under an agreement signed in Moscow on Tuesday. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY BUSINESS) - RTR4DP59

Russia's nuclear diplomacy

Russia's continuing negotiations and agreements with countries of the Middle East about nuclear power will continue to be a sore point with the West.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a cornerstone laying ceremony for a new neighbourhood in the southern town of Sderot January 28, 2015. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4NAB3

Netanyahu's Iranian boomerang

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rejection of an agreement with Iran will result in Israel losing the support of its Western allies and in Iran being legitimized as a nuclear threshold state by its Arab neighbors.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) (C) and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) (R) board an elevator as they take a break from a long series of votes, many on procedural matters or to confirm members of the Obama administration, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington December 13, 2014. The Senate passed a five-day extension of federal funding on Saturday, staving off a government shutdown and buying lawmakers more time to resolve a fight over a longer, $1.1 trillion spending bill led by Tea Party firebrand Ted Cruz.

Congress gives Obama two more months to strike Iran deal

Hawkish Democrats announce they won’t vote for sanctions before March 24 deal deadline.