Shana Cohen

The dust has barely settled following the dramatic 12-day war between Israel and Iran, but its political and strategic reverberations are already shaping the future of the Middle East. In this episode of Middle East Focus, Ross Harrison, senior fellow and book series editor at the Middle East Institute, joins hosts Alistair Taylor and Matthew Czekaj to assess what comes next — from Tehran’s internal power recalibrations to the future of Iran’s forward defense strategy, and shifting regional alliances.

The Iraqi government has long navigated a path between maintaining political ties with its Iranian neighbor and Tehran’s allies inside Iraq on the one hand, and preserving its security relationship with the United States on the other. Unsurprisingly, it quickly welcomed US President Donald Trump’s June 23 Israel-Iran cease-fire agreement.

After Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, can we learn to deal differently with Iran?

This special Bonus Episode of Middle East Focus gives listeners access to a recent MEI press briefing on the evolving Israel-Iran conflict, recorded on Wednesday, June 25. You’ll hear from MEI’s Distinguished Military Fellow Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow Alan Eyre, and Senior Fellow Paul Salem who join MEI’s Ken Pollack to discuss the ongoing conflict, in light of the recent proposed ceasefire agreement.

While most international media are focused on what will happen today or this week between America and Iran, the real story is much bigger—the complete turning of the tables on Iran.

This past Monday, after 12 days of war, Israel and Iran agreed to a cease-fire brokered by the US and Qatar. Three key questions presently loom over US policy on Iran and the wider Middle East.

Where is Ali Khamenei? That is the question on the minds of many Iranians and foreign observers in the aftermath of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. As missiles rained down and retaliatory strikes escalated, one voice was conspicuously absent: that of the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic.

أعلن حزب العمال الكردستاني (PKK) أنه سيحل نفسه وينهي تمرده المسلح الذي استمر لعقود. هل هذا تحول في الصراع الذي دام قرنًا من الزمان بين تركيا وسكانها الأكراد، أم أنه مناورة سياسية لتأمين قبضة الرئيس أردوغان على السلطة؟ تنضم إلى غونول تول النائبة الكردية سييلان أككا والعالم السياسي مراد سومر لتناول أبعاد هذا التحول التاريخي، والمطالب بالاعتراف الدستوري، وما إذا كان السلام ممكنًا في بلد تتعرض فيه الديمقراطية نفسها للتهديد.

The United States is now at war with Iran, or at least something dangerously close to it. The June 21 US strikes on key Iranian nuclear infrastructure, including the underground Fordow facility, marked a dramatic escalation. Yet Washington has carefully avoided calling this a full-scale war.

قامت الولايات المتحدة بضرب ثلاث منشآت نووية في إيران مساء يوم 21 يونيو، في خضم الصراع المستمر بين إسرائيل وإيران. يقدم باحثو معهد الشرق الأوسط (MEI) تحليلات في الوقت الفعلي للمساعدة في فهم معنى هذا التصعيد وما قد يحدث بعده.

تهدد الحرب الشاملة التي تشنها إسرائيل على إيران بقلب الديناميات الإقليمية وتوازن تركيا الدقيق. ويشكل هذا الصراع تهديدات فورية ومخاطر استراتيجية طويلة الأمد لتركيا.