A Post-War Model for Verifying Iran’s Missile Arsenal
This study proposes a model for constraining and verifying Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal by employing a layered Strategic Verification Model with seven components: comprehensive baseline declarations; missile test and launch monitoring; intrusive inspections; quantitative and qualitative limits on missile capabilities; production controls, especially on solid-fuel manufacturing; a robust enforcement and compliance architecture; and regional confidence building measures.
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.
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.
Podcasts
Middle East Focus
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.
The Political (or Social) Economy of Sectarianism in Lebanon
Most of the literature that seeks to explain sectarianism in Lebanon focuses on its history or on the regional and geopolitical dynamics associated with it. Relatively few studies have examined the internal factors that shape the process of sectarianization and sustain sectarianism today. However, if one does not first understand the present dynamics of sectarianism and the material and structural factors that shape it, then exploring the history of the phenomenon in an attempt to locate its “roots” is unlikely to be very illuminating. This essay seeks to shed light on the current political economy of sectarianism in Lebanon so as to advance our understanding of this phenomenon.
The Houthi missile attack against King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday not only heightened tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran, but also triggered a war of words between media outlets representing different factions in the Islamic Republic.
Harakat al-Nujaba Reacts to U.S. Move to Sanction Iran-Backed Iraqi Militias
Harakat al-Nujaba, a militia unit within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.), lashed out at the United States for seeking to impose sanctions against the group and other Iranian-sponsored militia organizations fighting in Iraq and Syria. On November 3, a bill was introduced the U.S. House of Representatives, entitled “Iranian Proxies Terrorist Sanctions Act of 2017,” which, if passed, will impose terrorism-related sanctions with respect to Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and Harakat al-Nujaba groups.
Mohammed bin Salman’s High-Wire Act | Monday Briefing
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Gerald Feierstein, Paul Salem, Ruba Husari, Amal Kandeel, and Gonul Tol provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the arrests of numerous prominent Saudi government officials and leading businessmen on charges of corruption, Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri’s resignation, oil prices in the Middle East hitting new highs, the threat to MENA due to rising temperature levels in the region, and the Turkish prime minister’s visit to Washington.
Hariri’s Resignation Alarms Tehran about Lebanon’s Future
The resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Sunday has sent shockwaves in Tehran. While Iranian leaders and their regional allies try to appear measured and confident, they fear that political instability in Lebanon and a potential war between Israel and Iran’s ally Hezbollah – particularly at a time when Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies are still engaged in the Syrian war – could adversely impact Tehran’s regional ambitions.
Iran Sees Hariri’s Resignation as Part of U.S.-led Plan to Counter Its Regional Influence
Saad Hariri’s unexpected resignation has rattled Tehran. Many Iranian officials, analysts and media outlets warn that the Lebanese prime minister’s resignation is part of a broader strategy by the United States and its regional allies – particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia – to counter the growing influence of Iran and its proxies in the Middle East.
Last week’s terrorist attack in New York City utilized similar tactics to other low-tech attacks carried out in western Europe, closely following the ISIS playbook.
Jasmine El-Gamal, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, Charles Lister, director of MEI’s Extremism and Counterterrorism project, and Will Wechsler, MEI senior fellow on national security and counterterrorism, join host Paul Salem to discuss what the attack means for U.S. counterterrorism policy and the future of the fight against ISIS.
The sudden resignation of Massoud Barzani as president of the Kurdish Region of Iraq (K.R.I.) casts into high relief the challenges that confront U.S. policy in the region today. Focused military action has set ISIS on its heels. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, U.S.
Hardliners Accuse Europe of "Betraying" Iran on Nuclear Deal
A prominent Iranian cleric today warned the Rouhani government against trusting European powers to renegotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers in 2015. “The Europeans are currently betraying [us] and defending the Americans.
Militants Kill Eight Iranian Border Guards near Turkish Border
The Iranian media reports that at least eight Iranian border guards were killed in clashes with an armed group today in the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan. Alireza Radfar, the deputy governor-general of West Azerbaijan, said the “terrorists” also sustained heavy casualties. He added that security forces are conducting a search operation in the area for other members of the group.
Khamenei: U.S. Is Iran’s “No. 1 Enemy” That Need to Confronted
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said today that the United States is Iran’s “number one enemy” and lashed out at President Donald Trump for calling his country a “terrorist nation.” He also stressed that Tehran will defy U.S. pressure and not give more concessions to Washington.
The NYC Terror Attack and U.S. Counterterrorism Policy
November 2, 2017 – Charles Lister, director of MEI’s Extremism and Counterterrorism program, discusses what the recent terror attack in lower Manhattan, and the suspect’s claimed connection to ISIS, means for U.S. security and counterterrorism policy.
It was a magical moment to come after so many years of anticipation, when the platform below the Louvre Abu Dhabi was carefully flooded with sea water from the surrounding Gulf.
Iranian-Backed Militias Trying to Link up along Iraqi-Syrian Border
A leader of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.) announced today that the paramilitary forces will participate in the military operation to capture the town of al-Qaim in western Anbar Province near the Syrian border. He added that Islamic State fighters are fleeing into Syria. According to Iran’s Fars News Agency, the P.M.F. and Iraqi security forces are 13 kilometers away from the center of al-Qaim.
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.
