The ongoing protests in Iran, which began following the death of Mahsa Amini, present a significant challenge to the post-revolutionary regime. The protests have not diminished despite violent suppression efforts by the establishment, and there are several distinguishing features of the current unrest compared to
This article argues that the Iranian regime successfully uses a terrorist blackmail strategy since the 1979 hostage saga of American diplomats at the US Tehran embassy, the bombings against the US Marines and French paratroopers of the Multinational Peace Force in Beirut in 1983, the
Over the past decades, Hezbollah has built a well-oiled, multi-billion-dollar illicit finance and drug-trafficking machine in Latin America that launders organized crime’s ill-gotten gains through multiple waypoints in the Western Hemisphere, West Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, generating hundreds of millions of annual revenues.
Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah’s threats on Karish gas drilling rig and prevent the production and export of gas from Israel’s reservoirs if Lebanon’s demands regarding the latter’s marine border with Israel constitute a significant escalation in Hezbollah’s aggressive rhetoric and may lead to another miscalculation
Since the end of the last century, Latin America has been a prominent area in which Iran has sought to expand its influence and scope of action. From drug smuggling to money laundering, from fundraising to recruitment and proselytism, even terrorist attacks, Iran-related activities in
One of the major areas terrorist organizations operate to influence their enemy’s public opinion ispropaganda. This war is being waged via traditional media and social media. The last two rounds ofhostilities in Gaza Operation Protective Edge (2014) and Guardian of the Walls (2021) manifested theimportance
Cyberspace has become one of the main arenas for state warfare. It is also largely used by non-state actors or state sponsored actors, including criminal networks and terrorist organisations. In recent years, their operations in cyberspace have become a real challenge for global security. Throughout
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s coughing speech on May 25, 2021, and especially the long absence that preceded it, raised quite a few question marks as to his health condition. Hezbollah claims that this is an insignificant allergy or medical defect and there is no basis
The deep Russian military involvement in Syria is slowly leading to a de facto restructuring of Middle Eastern alliances, putting America’s influence at risk, and Israel’s interests at stake. First published in Haaretz
During my participation at the International Seminar for the Combat of Terrorism and the Financing of Terrorism in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 30, 2016, I presented a short evaluation about the terrorism threats coming from the Middle East.
On June 17th 2020, the U.S. Government started implementing several aspects of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019. The purpose of this Act is to make Syrian President Assad’s regime accountable for its atrocities during the ongoing Syrian Civil War, while at the same
The major questions regarding the causes, and responsibilities, of the catastrophic explosion relate to the origin and destination of the ammonium nitrate cargo and the reasons that led to its storage in the Beirut port for six years.
Today, the Middle East remains vital for the realization of Russia’s interests in the southern part of its post-Soviet territories. This article discusses Iran and Hezbollah in the context of Russia’s tactical and strategic considerations and foreign policy interests in the Middle East.
Last year, after deserting the Iranian-led “axis of resistance” and positioning itself in the Sunni coalition against the Assad regime in Syria, Hamas lost the backing of the short-lived Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt and incurred the bitter enmity of the new military rulers in
Since the end of the Iran-Iraq war and the death of Khomeini, Iran has been in a state of internal struggle for the continuation of the Islamic Republic. The first stage of the struggle was waged between the “conservatives” and the “reformists”.
Civil Society Organizations: Non-Traditional Actors in the Process of Radicalization Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg and Olga Deutsch[1] In the ongoing attempts to disaggregate and understand the complex array of factors contributing to the rise of terrorism, “radicalization” has become a generalized and often catch-all
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was established soon after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1980 and was composed of the same groups that led the revolution. There were two central reasons for the establishment of the IRGC. First, it was designed to defend
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has been acting in any way possible to promote its interests in the Middle East, including the expansion of its sphere of influence within the Shiite communities, whom it has been able to harness to its needs. This