In 2025, Iran’s shadow fleet averaged nearly 1.6 million barrels of oil per day, largely destined for China, generating $48 billion.

The revenge rhetoric following Khamenei’s funeral has become a defining theme across Iran’s official media and political establishment.

Morocco carries no Hamas relationship to protect and no mediator role to balance.

In practice, what this means is that if the Lebanese government and armed forces fail to achieve this goal, the US commits by the framework agreement not to pressure Israel to withdraw.

Following the conflict, prices for many fertilizer products have increased six- to seven-fold, creating additional pressure on Iran’s already weak agricultural sector.

The regime must feel it has learned a powerful lesson: It can engage in provocative actions, extract concessions through pressure, get away with violations, and still remain firmly in power.

For Israel, the implications of the latest developments are deeply problematic.

IRGC members are trained to see the world through the lens of resistance, martyrdom, anti-Americanism, antisemitism, and blind loyalty to the supreme leader.

Here is the truth: no signing ceremony changes, and it carries no insult to the campaign: no agreement, not this one and not a better one, can permanently guarantee that Iran never builds a bomb.

Geopolitically, the seizure asserts Israeli primacy along its northern trench and exposes the limits of Iranian proxy power.

Iranian and non-Iranian critics flooded social media with harsh criticism of Trump as details of the possible deal began to leak.

Inside Iran, the regime presents even symbolic contacts with major Western leaders as evidence that powerful countries are appealing to Tehran and acknowledging its importance.

Missiles land, sirens sound, a militia claims responsibility openly, and then the necessary enforcement mechanism evaporates.

The 'Lebanese mud,' as the Hebrew phrase has it, never seems quite to be finally scraped off the IDF’s boots.

Given the obvious inadequacies of the Lebanese government and the demonstrated continued willingness and capacity of Hezbollah to continue aggression against Israel, is the buffer zone likely to acquire a look of permanence?

Trump hinted that Tehran will give up its 60% enriched uranium, which led to sharp reactions from Iranian hardliners.

The argument for a permanent Israeli security zone in southern Lebanon is not primarily territorial. It is psychological and doctrinal.

The delegation itself has become a visible expression of internal fragmentation.

Where no available partner exists for the negotiation of quiet borders, Israel will establish a physical barrier between its civilian population and the threat on the other side.

By keeping a narrow economic lifeline open—such as continued oil exports—Washington may be attempting to prevent further escalation while preserving incentives for restraint within Iran’s political system.

Israel is now applying the methods and practices it honed during the decades in which it fought mainly non-state forces against a state enemy.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps first sought to close the Strait of Hormuz, mining both it and the Gulf of Oman four decades ago.

The Islamic Republic has no shortage of sympathizers throughout the region willing to target American diplomats.

The result is not a transition but an entrenchment under a different institutional label.

While today the regime seeks to use the gold-plated facility to honor itself, any future regime should do the opposite.

The Islamic Republic was never a one-man show.

The three likeliest candidates include Ahmad Khatami, Mehdi Shabzendedar Jahromi, and Ahmad Hosseini Khorasani.

Universities produce skilled labor and future administrators, but they also concentrate young people with time, grievances, and the capacity to organize.

The IDF is working at a breakneck speed to fill tunnels it finds with cement or blow them up to ensure they are no longer usable.

Tehran has carefully weighed the risk of a U.S. military strike against Trump’s demands and concluded that it cannot afford to give up its missile arsenal or its capacity for regional disruption.

Iran's parliament convened with lawmakers wearing uniforms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and chanting 'Death to America!'

Two ideologies converge in him: resentment toward Western power and the medieval antisemitism embedded in political Islam.

If Trump does not follow through with his threat, adversaries such as Russia and China will see his rhetoric as empty, as they did with Obama.

By allowing radical groups and Iranian-backed proxies to weaponize the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a staging ground for jihadi optics, Israel inadvertently signaled that its sovereignty was negotiable.

If large numbers of protesters are killed and the rest retreat to their homes, the Islamic Republic will survive once again and turn to revenge—both against its people and against its regional adversaries.

While it is still too early for him to do so—the Iranian people only control a few peripheral towns—his return will be a political earthquake.

The Iranian regime’s elite do not have a place to go where they can live luxurious lives in a society with similar values.

The ideology that says murdering Jews is a form of 'resistance' worthy of charitable support—is alive and well on American college campuses and in American nonprofits.

Trump’s peace agreement is already faltering as Hamas refuses to disarm, and Trump’s team compromises with terrorists to keep the illusion of peace alive.

A joint interest in keeping the lid on Judea and Samaria has until now proved durable and is the main cause for the quiet in the area.