Read in-depth research, analysis, and commentary from MEI’s fellows and experts on the Middle East.
The US administration appears to have great expectations for Iraq’s new prime minister, Ali Falah al-Zaidi. But the expectations need to be tempered.
The 2026 Iran war has made Lebanon a core Gulf security concern, and Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar now have a narrow opportunity to curb Hizballah’s influence by leading reconstruction, strengthening Lebanese state institutions, and tying economic re-engagement to reform.
After nearly four months of war, the US and Iran have signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding declaring the conflict over, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and beginning talks toward a final deal. Alan Eyre, MEI Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow and a core member of the 2015 JCPOA negotiating team, joins host Alistair Taylor to unpack the deal’s implications for both countries, its ripple effects across the region, and what a lasting settlement would take.
The Houthis are a political-military faction and Zaydi religious movement founded in northwestern Yemen in the 1980s. A key member of Iran’s Axis of Resistance with links to other militant organizations in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, the group has continued to pose a threat to Western interests on a global scale.
This backgrounder provides an overview of how the Abraham Accords came about, the US interests involved, their economic and strategic consequences, and the prospects for further enlargement going forward.
After a decade of post-Arab Spring isolation, Turkey’s leaders have recognized that their ambition to position the country as an agenda-setter on the world stage requires active engagement in all directions. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s consolidation of executive authority has centralized foreign policy decision-making and tied it to his domestic political priorities, transforming the country’s revisionist approach to one shaped primarily by personal and pragmatic interests.
As the Western Sahara conflict reaches its fifth decade, the territorial dispute remains unresolved and largely unknown. MEI’s Intissar Fakir unpacks the Western Sahara’s complex history and the rival claims by Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. She examines recent developments, such as President Trump’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory and the collapse of a 30-year cease-fire, as well as the core questions that remain unanswered after half a century.
MEI’s flagship weekly podcast on US foreign policy and contemporary political and social issues in the Middle East.
MEI Senior Fellow Brian Katulis engages friends, colleagues, and policy experts in casual conversations on the most important happenings in the Middle East.
MEI Senior Fellow Gonul Tol hosts leading scholars and thought leaders on global democracy trends and the state of the liberal international order.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Monday praised his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and emphasized that Tehran and Moscow should continue their cooperation in Syria until the complete establishment of security and stability in the war-torn country, the Iranian media reported. “Close relations and cooperation between Iran and Russia have been very effective in Syria and for peace and security across the region,” Rouhani said in a meeting with Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament), who is visiting Tehran leading a parlia
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Robert S. Ford, Gerald Feierstein, Randa Slim, and Alex Vatanka provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the chemical attack on Douma, Sheikh Tamim’s Tuesday meeting with Trump, Lebanese parliamentary elections, Moroccan and Algerian tension over Western Sahara, and Iran and India’s strategic partnership.
A senior official of the United Arab Emirates has called on Iran to end its “occupation” of the three islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and the Lesser Tunb, the Arab press reported. Marwan Ahmad bin Ghalaita, the first voice president of UAE’s Federal National Council (FNC), said the UAE has a firm position on the three disputed islands and will not abandon its claim over them. He stressed that the dispute can either be resolved through negotiations between Iran and UAE or Abu Dhabi will report the case to the International Court of Justice for arbitration.
Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Organization, has said that an alliance of Shiite militia forces that fought against the Islamic State will now shift attention to politics and will participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. In an interview with the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV, Amiri said that the Fateh Alliance, a coalition of Iranian-supported Shiite units within the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), will take an active part in the elections and expressed the hope that it can play a major role in the next government.
Iraj Masjedi, Tehran’s ambassador to Baghdad, held separate meetings with Iraqi President Fuad Masum and prominent Shiite leaders in the run-up to the Iraqi parliamentary elections slated for May 12, Iranian and Arab media outlets reported. In the meeting with the Iraqi president on Thu
The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey held a high-profile summit in Ankara this week, their second such summit in six months. Are we seeing the formation of a new security axis in the region, and if so, where would that leave the United States? MEI’s Gonul Tol and Alex Vatanka join host Paul Salem to discuss.
Listen closely to the debate in Tehran about Syria and you will detect great unease. There is an underlying fear—inside both the moderate and the hard-line camps of the regime—that Iran won the war but is in danger of losing out in the post-war period that will follow. This apprehension has always been there. But it has become markedly more distinct as the principal foreign powers that intervened in Syria—Russia, Turkey and the U.S.—set their sights on the long-term endgame.
A senior official of the Yemeni Houthi rebels has said that the insurgent group is willing to purchase weapons from Iran and Russia if they can deliver the arms to the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, which is currently held by the Houthis. Saleh al-Samad, the head of the Houthis’ political council, which administers Sana’a, made the remarks at a graduation ceremony of new Houthi military leaders.
In an interview with the BBC Arabic, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said that the fate of British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is only in the hands of the Iranian Judiciary. He urged the British government to respect the “independence” of the judicial branch in the Islamic Republic.
Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said that the country’s authorities have uncovered an Iranian bank that was financing acts of terrorism in the island kingdom.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met with his Russian and Turkish counterparts today in Ankara for talks over the Syrian conflict.
This essay discusses Saudi Arabia’s Soft Power Strategy in Indonesia. The Saudi strategy of cultural investment in Indonesia — primarily engineered through building Islamic schools, supplying teachers and textbooks, and financing scholarship opportunities — has facilitated a channel of Saudi influence largely impermeable to Indonesia’s political changes over the last 40 years. Saudi-supported Islamic education not only survived but thrived under the oppression of Suharto’s New Order regime from 1966 to 1998. Today, under Indonesia’s often anti-liberal democratic rule, the country’s Saudi-educated Muslim elite have capitalized on opportunities to use increased political freedom to promote religious protectionism and hardline Islamic orthodoxy.
The countries of the Middle East are using art to remodel their national identities. Billions of dollars have been spent on colossal building efforts and massive acquisition programs in an effort to expand the cultural sector in the Middle East, especially in the Gulf. Art acquisition now appears to be part of a geopolitical strategy by Gulf countries to use their hydrocarbon money to purchase cultural clout and establish themselves as international cultural centers.
The oldest peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East, MEI’s flagship journal covers politics, society, and culture in the region.
