The Pentagon may have missed a significant deadline on Lebanon. Congress, in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, gave the secretary of defense until June 30 to report on how to assess Lebanese...
Eight months after the ceasefire, Hamas still controls half of Gaza
On June 19, US Central Command (CENTCOM) carried out an airstrike targeting a senior leader of the Islamic State in Syria as the US maintains its decade-long campaign against the jihadist...
The US-backed peace plan for Gaza has continued to progress slowly, though ceasefire talks held in Cairo in the first week and a half of June appeared to stall over the issue of Hamas’s disarmament,...
President Donald Trump has announced that Washington and Tehran have signed an agreement with two pillars: reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring the Islamic Republic cannot develop...
Has the Islamic Republic of Iran been defanged, or did the United States and Israel fail to set back the Middle East’s preeminent ballistic missile power? The answer is more complex than headlines indicate. With...
Despite Iranian intransigence, the U.S. blockade of the Islamic Republic’s ports, which began on April 13, is already generating real pain — and real results — for the Islamic Republic. Iran exported...
The Trump administration is fond of reminding allies that NATO is a two-way street. But at present, Washington seems to need that message most. Earlier this month, amid a feud between President Donald...
Two days after United States Central Command launched Project Freedom, a naval operation to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump paused the operation. Trump...
Iran Attacks U.S. Vessels: U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed on May 7 that “U.S. forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes as U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers transited the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman.” The statement noted that “Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage. No U.S. assets were struck.” CENTCOM added that it had “eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces including missile and drone launch sites; command and control locations; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes.”
On May 5, the Syrian Ministry of Interior and the General Intelligence Directorate announced that security forces thwarted a major terrorist attack aiming to destabilize the country. In a series...
Iran Renews Attacks on the UAE: The United Arab Emirates condemned what it called “renewed terrorist, unprovoked Iranian attacks targeting civilian sites and facilities in the...
On May 4, US Central Command (CENTCOM) denied that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) struck a US warship in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC claimed to have a US Navy frigate the same day...
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made an important announcement when he said that Washington is developing a plan to pursue Hezbollah’s disarmament by building up trusted units within the Lebanese...
The Kosovo Security Force (KSF) announced on April 26 that it had sent a team to Gaza to examine an area where its troops may operate in the future. “During this visit, the team will conduct a preliminary...
From nuclear setbacks to proxy collapse, the Islamic Republic faces its most severe strategic crisis in 47 years
With the conflict still unfolding, FDD estimates economic damage to Iran at approximately 40 percent of its pre-war GDP — a first accounting that speaks to the breadth and depth of Iran’s losses. Specifically,...
Blockade in Effect After Announcement: The United States began its targeted blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on April 13. President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to begin blocking...
Washington and Tehran are both arguing that they were victorious after 40 days of fighting. A detailed analysis, however, suggests a more nuanced picture in which American forces degraded Iran’s core...