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The Mecca pact: Damascus acquires an instrument it did not hold on August 17
Syrian talks on the Mecca Pact: collective defence, diplomatic options and the cost of Israeli strikes.
Abu al-Duhur: Israel declared a rule, and no one can ratify it
«Don’t be fooled,» a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on August 21. «Turkey intended to place radar systems and attack drones at the Syrian air force base under Syrian cover. The information is very solid. The Turks know that …
Economic D-Day: The Bill Goes to the Allies, Not to Tehran
«Their navy is gone, their air force is destroyed, their military factories are now rubble, their currency is worthless and their country is hanging by a thread,» Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday evening, August 19. Two hundr…
Strait of Hormuz: The Oil Moves in Convoys, and Only Washington Counts It
For several weeks the US military has been running 15 to 20 tankers a night through the southern channel of the Strait of Hormuz, hugging the coast of Oman. About 10 million barrels of oil a day reach world markets through that corridor, ro…
The Security Council: Who Needs a Decision, and Who Needs Only Its Absence
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on August 19 that the body had become «very good at holding meetings but very bad at making a difference.» Instead of spending its time on Iran, Hamas, Hezbol…
B’Yachad: Bennett reverses the equation, Lapid demands a memorandum already conceded
«If Hezbollah fires at us, we strike Iran. A strike by the Iranian octopus’s tentacles inside Israel’s borders will exact a price inside Iran’s borders,» Naftali Bennett said on August 19 at the security conference of B’Yachad, the joint li…
Strait of Hormuz: the reopening is for sale, not the passage
Five commodity vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. None crossed on Sunday. The weekend before, the same two days carried thirty-one. Reuters published the figures from the ship-tracking firm Kpler on Monday, August 17. Before …
The Mecca Pact Instead of the Abraham Accords
How the Mecca Pact changes Saudi security calculations and the role of normalization with Israel.
Iran: Washington pays with a carrier and its drones, Mossad pays with the plan’s authors
A U.S. official told the Washington Post that the intelligence on an Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump was «Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence.» Israel passed the warning to the CIA before the president left t…
Syria: Iran Threatens the Palace
If Damascus sends troops into Lebanon against Hezbollah, Iranian missiles will land on Syria rather than Lebanon: more than 100 strategic sites in the opening salvo alone, the presidential palace first among them. Tehran passed that warning…
The New Middle East — and Israel Isn’t in It
What was actually signed on July 22 «We are changing the Middle East and becoming a regional power,» Netanyahu said in March 2026, at his first press conference after the war with Iran began. He repeated the formula all year, and it had a s…
How the Opposition Is Building the Case to Reject the Election Result
In the Knesset today, opposition leader Yair Lapid declared: «Russia and Iran are running influence operations against the Israeli public in the run-up to the election.» The theme of a future stolen election is being introduced not by a fri…