The United Arab Emirates’ decision to leave OPEC is not just about oil production. It reflects a deeper shift in Gulf geopolitics, where alliances are weakening, competition is rising, and national interest now overrides regional coordination.
Britain and its allies left thousands of Islamic State detainees in Kurdish run camps as a temporary solution to a politically toxic problem. Now that system is breaking down. As Western governments engage Syria’s new leadership and Kurdish control erodes, the contradiction at the heart of detention by remembering is becoming impossible to ignore.
The Middle East security architecture does not exist in any meaningful sense. Fragmented regional actors, weak institutions, and rival alignments leave Iran negotiating deterrence bilaterally rather than regionally.
At Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest American military installation in the Middle East, subtle changes are underway. US fighter aircraft have deployed forward, an aircraft carrier has entered the region, and logistics activity has surged. The evidence points to preparation for conflict with Iran, while stopping short of a decision to fight.
The Middle East is no longer organised around sovereign states and formal diplomacy. From Yemen to Somaliland to Iran, competing models of power are reshaping the region around ports, networks, recognition, and economic pressure. This long read examines how Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, and the United States are driving a post sovereign order whose consequences are only beginning to emerge.
Iran’s unrest is driven by economic collapse and loss of confidence. But its sudden global amplification coincides with quieter procedural changes in Gaza, the West Bank, and key maritime corridors that are likely to outlast the protests themselves.
War is no longer disrupting global trade. It is being written into the contracts and insurance frameworks that make trade possible. As war risk pricing, listed areas, and standard charterparty clauses harden into routine procedure, conflict becomes a toll. Watch the insurance market, not the speeches. It signals what the world is normalising.
Donald Trump’s new “peace plan” for Gaza is presented as a humanitarian breakthrough — a cease-fire, hostages freed, food trucks rolling. Strip away the spin, and it is something else entirely: an occupation management...
Signed Sept. 17 in Riyadh, the Saudi–Pakistan defense pact promises “all military means” and leaves nuclear terms unspoken
An Israeli airstrike in Doha has cast a long shadow over the latest round of ceasefire diplomacy. Hamas negotiators, assembled under Qatari protection, became the targets of a strike that killed the son of...
By Jaffa Levy BARCELONA, Aug. 31, 2025 — A fleet of around 20 small vessels slipped from the city’s harbour on Sunday, laden with food, water and medicine, and carrying a mission beyond mere...
By Jaffa Levy in London and Abu Rashid in Sana’a Last week — Thursday, August 28, 2025 — an airstrike hit the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, killing Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi and several cabinet colleagues....
By Jaffa Levy Baghdad’s new security memorandum with Tehran is not a tidy border fix. It is the start of a legal denial regime: a pledge that neither country’s territory or airspace will be...