With the Syrian conflict right on its borders, and Russia and Iran increasingly shaping the region’s politics, Turkey is becoming beholden to NATO’s enemies.
Internal strikes throughout the country might harm the economy at least as much as the announced sanctions (Tehran, 2017).
Stella Morgana
As Iran struggles under another round of international sanctions, a widening social gap is putting President Hassan Rouhani’s government under pressure.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Hassan Rouhani of Iran and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, following their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 7, 2018.
Reuters/Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool
Gordon Adams, American University School of International Service
The US was once the dominant force in the Middle East. That old order has disappeared. Now the new powers are Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Russia – and the US needs a new policy for the region.
Protests during the Iranian Revolution, 1978 represent broader struggles across the region between secular and Islamic models of governance playing out.
Wikicommons
The Iranian Revolution was a hard-fought battle for those in favour of the Islamist model of governance, inspiring similar movements that have had varying degrees of success across the region.
Joggers and sightseers take in the Doha skyline.
Reuters/Ibraheem al Omari
Qatar’s decision to aid Turkey in the face of American sanctions against the country may finally be a snub too far for its close relationship with the US.
Bahareh Jahandoost brings literature, performing arts and new media together to express Iranian society.
Mehdi Khosravi
American policymakers and lawmakers are floating unilateral sanctions against Russia, Iran and even Turkey in an effort to change behavior. But research shows sanctions only work in narrow circumstances.
Students at the American Memorial School, Tabriz, 1923.
shahrefarang.com
There was a time when Iran and America were friends. Americans founded schools there, helped Iran handle financial crises and trained the country’s first generation of doctors. Could that happen again?
A mock-up of banned Muslim travellers’ passport placed outside the U.S. Supreme Court in April.
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
Yemen’s civil war is a stew of local and foreign interests, from Washington, Saudi Arabia to Iran. And the latest battle may cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, if not millions.
Demonstrators show their support for anti-government protests in Iran in front of the White House in January.
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
The Iranian government reacted to a nationwide truck drivers’ strike with unprecedented restraint, apparently fearful a crackdown might provoke a Trump intervention.
An Iraqi woman shows her ink-stained finger after voting in the first national election since the declaration of victory over the Islamic State group.
AP Photo/Hadi Mizban
The recent parliamentary election in Iraqi may have been the most transformative of the post-Saddam era, a pollster from Baghdad and an American academic explain.
An oil tanker leaves Sydney Harbour.
Saberwyn/Wikimedia Commons
Australia’s recently announced review of its national fuel stockpiles is timely indeed. The country is almost totally reliant on oil being shipped through some of the world’s most contested regions.