The waters south of the Middle East are a strategic area rich in energy resources – often leading to conflicts.
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What is happening in Gaza is not simply a settlement issue. There are Israeli economic interests at stake.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meet on Nov. 30, 2023.
Saul Loeb/Pool via AP
Israel has made it clear that Hamas should have no role in Gaza after the war. But seeking an alternative in the Palestinian Authority is fraught with problems.
A U.N. navy vessel seen through barbed wire patrols the Mediterranean Sea off the Lebanese coast.
AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari
A maritime border agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel seemed like a step toward peaceful relations. But now both countries are getting ready for what looks like an unavoidable war.
A Thai foreign worker tends to an agriculture field in Beersheba, Israel.
Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)
The contours of the Middle East conflict have long influenced Israel’s migrant worker policy.
Esmail Ghaani, head of Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force, speaks at a ceremony in Tehran on April 14, 2022.
AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
Esmail Ghaani took control of the unconventional warfare wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps following the killing of predecessor Qassem Soleimani.
A demonstration on Dec. 28, 2023, in Tel Aviv, organized by the peace group Standing Together, calls for a cease-fire.
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Secular Jewish groups have historically made up the majority of solidarity and peace groups. But Palestinian citizens and observant Jews are also key.
Displaced Gazan children wait in line to receive food.
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Arable land has been destroyed, as have food production sites. But even before the current operation in Gaza, Palestinians there suffered high rates of food insecurity.
Yahya Arhab/EPA
Many people in Yemen and throughout the Middle East believe terror groups are a tool that Western-backed oppressive regimes have long used to maintain power.
Armed and dangerous: fighters from Iran’s Quds Force at a funeral for comrades killed in the February 2 US airstrikes in Iraq.
EPA-EFE/Ahmed Jalil
Iran funds a large network of armed groups across the Middle East as part of its ambition to replace the US as regional power.
A view of destroyed buildings and roads is shown in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Feb. 2, 2024.
Abdulqader Sabbah/Anadolu via Getty Images
While the conflict between Hamas and Israel is unique, the case of South Africa’s border war – and subsequent fall of apartheid – might offer lessons that apply to the Middle East.
EPA-EFE/Michael Reynolds
The Biden administration has calibrated its strikes so as not to provoke a wider armed conflict in the region.
The headquarters of an Iranian-linked group in Anbar, Iraq was among the sites targeted by U.S. bombers.
Hashd al-Shaabi Media Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
More than 85 locations linked to militias were hit in a robust response by Washington to an earlier deadly drone attack on a US base in Jordan.
Weighing up options: the US president, Joe Biden, is considering how to retaliate to the drone attack which killed three US servicemen in Jordan on January 28.
Adam Schultz/White House Photo/Alamy Live News
History tells us that US presidents tend to be cautious about foreign policy in an election year – especially in the Middle East.
Jordanian and U.S. tanks take part in joint maneuvers in September 2022.
Khalil Mazraawi/AFP
Three American troops were killed and dozens more injured in an attack on a base in Jordan. How the Biden administration responds could determine if conflict in the Middle East widens.
A billboard depicts the leaders of the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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Iran has expanded its network of partners across the Middle East. But it isn’t a simple case of Tehran dictating the terms of the alliance.
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Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea have disrupted trade between Asia and Europe – could ships cross the Arctic instead?
A view of Iran’s Qanat of Zarch in the city of Yazd.
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Qanats are an ancient system which could be a useful way of getting water to farms in arid areas.
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Conflict between Lebanon and Israel looms – it would throw the Lebanese economy further into crisis.
Houthi supporters rally in Yemen following U.S.-U.K. airstrikes.
Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images
The raid follows warnings from Washington to cease attacks in the Red Sea − but it could serve to strengthen rebels and reignite civil war.
Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Hezbollah Military Media, via AP
Israel and Hezbollah are engaged in tit-for-tat attacks, but a diplomatic path still exists to avoid an escalation.