Last week, the Department of Energy announced that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart had signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement along with a bilateral safeguards pact. The former is commonly known as a 123 agreement because,…
At Pickaxe Mountain, Iran thinks it has built a nuclear fortress America can’t destroy. President Donald Trump can’t afford to let that illusion survive another week. Fortunately, he has options. Tehran has followed the same playbook for decades, secretly building underground…
By attacking Iran, President Donald Trump triggered a crisis over the Strait of Hormuz that he’s struggled to resolve as commander-in-chief. His only way out now may be as a statesman — but the window to avoid uncontrolled escalation could be closing.…
Excerpt below: The view through the windshield of the Israeli armored vehicle was surreal. Hosted by the 99th Division under Southern Command, our small group entered Gaza through the same breach the Israel Defense Forces used during the opening stages…
When Secretary of State Marco Rubio touched down in Abu Dhabi on June 23 for his first visit to the Gulf since the Iran war began, he offered a telling description of his purpose. “We want to make sure their views are…
When Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa officially assumed power after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in January 2025, he pledged to preserve “civil peace,” rebuild Syria’s military and security institutions, and restore state authority after years of fragmentation and civil war. It was an appealing proposition. Under Assad, weak…
The Israel-Lebanon agreement at the very least works against the equation established by the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Iran and the U.S. As Hussein Aboubakr Mansour observes, this equation is as disturbing to Gulf governments as it is to Jerusalem: If…
U.S. President Donald Trump launched the war against Iran in part to remove the ballistic-missile threat he long railed against. On June 17, he announced that Iran can keep them. At the G7 summit in France, Trump said Iran’s missiles only “hurt a…
Excerpt Below: In 38 days of war, beginning on Feb. 28, the United States and Israel decapitated Iran’s leadership, and pummeled its missile and drone arsenals, defense industry, air defenses and navy. The Iranian regime was on its back and…
On Thursday morning, President Donald Trump threatened to hit Iran “VERY HARD,” seize its main oil export terminal at Kharg Island, and take “total control” of its energy industry. By the afternoon, he’d canceled it all on indications that Iran had approved “discussions…