Navy boats from the United Arab Emirates next to the Al Marzoqah of Saudi Arabia, one of several international oil tankers attacked in the Gulf in May 2019. The Saudi government has blamed Iran for acts of sabotage.
Reuters/Satish Kumar
A showdown with Iran over some oil tanker attacks in the Persian Gulf could push the US into its next Mideast war, writes a scholar of military aggression.
The USS Arlington – which is being sent to the Gulf as part of a naval strike group.
David Hecker/EPA
Both Iran and the US say they are not seeking a war, but it could happen by default.
The last four decades in Iran have been marked by internal tension due to its political system, which combines theocratic and republican elements.
from shutterstock.com
Reformers have tried to modernise Iran for decades but have failed mainly due to the country’s powerful theocracy. And then there are those who want to overthrow the regime altogether.
Seven world leaders with axes to grind are preparing to sit round one table. Sparks will fly.
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.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, welcomes his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, ahead of their meeting in Moscow on May 14, 2018.
AP/Maxim Shemetov
Hanlie Booysen, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
To understand how Syria has become the theatre for proxy wars between international forces, one has to return to the Arab uprisings and Syria’s role as an outlier.
Ever since the shocking spectacle of the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis, American conservatives have reserved a special disdain for the Islamic Republic.
He said he’d do it, and he has.
Michael Reynolds/EPA
A mummy unearthed during construction in Iran may be the body of a former shah. For the Islamic regime, the discovery is an unwelcome reminder of Iran’s secular past. For protesters, it holds promise.
The new secretary of state once called the Iran nuclear deal ‘unconscionable.’ If he supports Trump’s instinct to scrap the agreement on May 12, it could unleash violence across the volatile Mideast.
Hellraiser: John Bolton at the UN, 2006.
EPA/Peter Foley
Reportedly passed over for secretary of state because of his moustache, John Bolton has made it into Donald Trump’s administration at last.
The newly nominated secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is a foreign policy hawk who opposes the Iran nuclear deal. Scrapping it could unleash a chain reaction of violence across the Middle East.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Trump’s pick to lead the State Department believes Iran is ‘intent on destroying America.’ But ending the Iran nuclear deal could unleash a violent chain reaction, a Mideast scholar says.