Iran’s Cyber Retaliation Strategy
Over the last decade, Iran has developed cyber capabilities that can target US and European water and electricity systems.
Persian Gulf
Iraq’s Growing Oil Exports Through Basra Should Not Become an Asset for Iran
Basra, Iraq’s oil export hub perched on the Persian Gulf, is busier than it has been since conflict between the United States and Iran began in February. According to Bloomberg, satellite imagery...
Policy Briefs
Operation Economic Outcast is a recipe for success against Iran
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday launched what he called Operation Economic Outcast — a global campaign to shut down every last source of financial oxygen feeding a fractured rump...
Op-eds
Why a Saudi Nuclear Program Is Not Worth Ending US Nonproliferation Policy
It is unlikely that Russia or China would be willing to support a Saudi nuclear program if the United States refuses to do so.
Op-eds
Kim Jong Un’s European front
North Korea is learning modern warfare on Ukrainian ground—and Russia is paying the tuition
Op-eds
Open-Source Intel Makes U.S. Troops an Easier Target for Iran
Iran is reading American service members’ social media feeds to deadly effect. The fact is that not all intelligence must be gleaned from secret, closed sources for it to be effective, and Tehran...
Op-eds
Iraq Struggles To Find Oil Export Options, but the UAE May Be Able To Help
Iraq relies on oil revenue for over 90 percent of its budget. With exports hovering at around half of the usual 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) that were exported before Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz,...
Policy Briefs
Tehran’s reshuffle leaves no pragmatic opening
upreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s latest appointments to Iran’s top security and paramilitary institutions are not routine personnel changes but a reflection of his priorities for tighter control over...
Op-eds
Erdogan’s Iraq play: A bigger game than oil
There is an easy way to read Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to host Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al Zaidi in Ankara on July 28, and to call the visit “historic”: as an energy...
Op-eds
Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: August
Trend Overview Welcome back to the Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker. Once a month, we ask FDD’s experts and scholars to assess the administration’s foreign policy. They provide trendlines...
Policy Tracker
As Iran batters the Gulf states, Trump’s course is beyond clear
President Donald Trump says he has “plenty of time” for talks with Iran. That works because Washington, DC, is 7,000 miles away from the Strait of Hormuz. But if you are in Dubai,...
Op-eds
The Houthis Are Hitting Saudi Arabia’s Energy Pipeline — and Here’s Why That Matters
Saudi Arabia has weathered Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz by relying on its east-west pipeline to send crude from the kingdom’s energy-rich eastern province to the Red Sea terminal...
Op-eds
The Middle East Moves Toward a Multifront Maritime War
Yemen’s Houthis have brought the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait into the conflict between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran — blocking millions more barrels of oil from easily...
Policy Briefs
Why the Houthis Declared a Blockade on Saudi Arabia
The Yemeni militant group is poised to disrupt another key chokepoint in the global energy supply.
Op-eds
Iran reportedly tells Houthis to close Bab al Mandeb Strait if US strikes power grid
Three sources told Reuters on July 16 that Iran has instructed Yemen’s Houthis to close the Red Sea to shipping if the US attacks Iran’s power network, which President Donald Trump threatened to...
Op-eds
Revealed: Step-by-step plan to finally end Iran war with US victory… and it doesn’t require any American boots on the ground or handing Tehran a single dollar
Excerpt Even as Washington and Tehran continue to intensify strikes against each other’s assets across the Persian Gulf, the key lesson of America’s ongoing conflict with Iran is...
Op-eds
Iranian ballistic missile operations: 2024–2026
Over the past two years, the Islamic Republic has engaged in at least 15 distinct ballistic missile operations from its territory against foreign targets. These attacks, starting in January 2024, ended...
Op-eds
Why Squander The Greatest Leverage Ever Built Against Iran?
Is the Trump administration about to surrender a significant portion of its leverage before the hardest phase of negotiations begin?
Op-eds
Qatar covers its tracks: Gulf state spent millions to infiltrate American classrooms
Excerpt Qatar Foundation International has poured millions of dollars into U.S. K-12 public schools over the past 17 years. Qatari officials have long claimed that QFI has a “narrow philanthropic...
Op-eds
Trump’s Blockade Is Zeroing Out Iran’s Oil Exports
The Islamic Republic of Iran suffered a devastating blow in May, with the American blockade and sanctions biting deep into the regime’s bottom line. Iran exported zero crude oil in the month and only...