Iran’s Limited Missile Arsenal Retains Capability to Fire Projectiles at Tankers Passing Through the Narrow Shipping Channel
By Issuing a Temporary Waiver on Sanctions, the U.S. Acknowledged That Energy Market Stability Sometimes Requires Flexibility
More than Sixty-Five Years After Cypriot Independence, It Is Time for British Forces to Leave
Directives Fuel Concerns Over Islamist Influence on Catalan Administration
Charity Commission Seeking Greater Oversight Authority
Iran’s Leadership Crisis Ends With A Familiar Name And A Narrower Political Future.
Many Young Iranians Have Turned from Shi’ism in Recent Years Out of Disgust with Iran’s Clerical Hierarchy
The Government Acknowledged Dozens of Casualties, Though Some Eyewitnesses Suggested the Number Was Higher
The Houthis Have Avoided Making Definitive Statements About How They Might Respond If Regional Hostilities Intensify
Spain Runs Colonies Across the Strait of Gibraltar on the Northern Coast of Morocco
Even After Battlefield Defeat, Tehran’s Networks May Shift Toward Global Revenge.
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s New Supreme Leader, Is a Devoted Son of the Islamic Republic Whose Rule May Take the Regime in an Even More Extreme Direction
What Could Change This Picture Is a Joint Us-Israeli Long-War Strategy to Bring Down the Iranian Regime by Supporting Both Armed and Civilian Opposition on the Ground
National Intelligence Council Products and National Intelligence Estimates Promote Groupthink
Washington Has Encouraged European Allies to Assume Greater Responsibility for Regional Security
Spotlight on War with Iran
The Iranian Navy and Air Force are effectively non-existent. The new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since the start of the war. Basij checkpoints are being attacked by drones.

But the Islamic Republic is far from finished. The Strait of Hormuz has seen tankers attacked and oil flow is critical. What is the path to an end that is worth the dangers? MEF fellows and experts weigh in on all of this.
As unrest spreads across Iran, the regime and the opposition both face narrowing choices.
Iran’s Kurdish Armed Groups Remain Too Fragmented, Cautious and Constrained to Shape the War’s Outcome.
Sustained Strikes and the Removal of Senior Islamic Republic Figures Raise Questions About the Regime’s Durability
An Operational Concept for Reopening the Strait of Hormuz Without a Ground Campaign
A Doctrine for the Iranian Resistance
Classical Strategy and the Path from Air Campaign to Iranian Liberation
Spotlight on the Middle East
The entire region is affected by the conflict with Iran, but there are many other vital issues being covered by MEF. New alliances are growing in the Eastern Mediterranean, Syrian in-fighting cools down and let’s not forget North Africa.

The turmoil makes predictions perilous, but it also presents opportunities for change. Will the conflict with Iran create the conditions for broader peace and prosperity?
Cairo’s Regional Security No Longer Depends on Gulf Symbolism but on Eastern Mediterranean Energy Alignment
Behind Official Merger Language, Kobani Still Operates Under Kurdish Security Control
Iran’s Proxy Strategy Has Expanded Beyond the Levant and Now Threatens North Africa’s Strategic Balance
The Sánchez Regime Has Made Hostility to Jerusalem Its Policy and Israel Should Impose Consequences
When Turkish Networks Move Money, Weapons, People and Narcotics Across Borders, They Export Not Only Violence but Also the Institutional Weaknesses and Culture of Impunity
Middle East Quarterly - Current Issue
Founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes, MEQ is the Middle East Forum’s journal intended for both scholars and the educated public. Policymakers, opinion-makers, academics, and journalists write for and read the Quarterly, which is known for exclusive interviews, in-depth historical articles, and book reviews on subjects ranging from archaeology to politics and on countries from Morocco to Iran.


Spring 2026 Volume 33: Number 2
  1. Dhimmitude Is the Mechanism That Transformed Strong Judeo-Christian Civilizations Into Islamic Ones
  2. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and His Labor Party Achieved a ‘Stunning’ Electoral Victory in Australia with a Very Large Mandate
  3. Psychiatric Disorders in Islamic Societies Are Reflected in the Unique Societal, Cultural, and Religious Contexts That Influence Mental Health
  4. With a Population of 170 Million People, Bangladesh, Formerly East Pakistan, Is the Third Largest Muslim Majority Nation in the World
Middle East Forum Observer
Founded in 2024, the Observer provides rapid analysis on leading Middle East developments, from Marrakech to Mashhad and the Bab el-Mandeb to the Black Sea.
Launched in 2006, Islamist Watch is a project of the Middle East Forum. We work to combat the ideas and institutions of lawful Islamism in the United States and throughout the West. Arguing that “radical Islam is the problem, moderate Islam is the solution,” we seek to expose the Islamist organizations that currently dominate the debate, while identifying and promoting the work of moderate Muslims.
CAMPUS WATCH, a project of the Middle East Forum, reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with an aim to improving them. The project mainly addresses five problems: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students. Campus Watch fully respects the freedom of speech of those it debates while insisting on its own freedom to comment on their words and deeds.
Antisemitism
  1. By Suspending Work Visas for El Al’s Israeli Security Staff, Macron Appeases Radicals Rather than Ensuring Aviation Safety
  2. Rife with Antisemitic Tropes, the Books Omit References to Hamas’s Slaughter of Israelis, the Holocaust, and Jordan’s Peace Treaty with Israel
  3. From Their Support for the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) Movement, to Hosting Terrorists, to Accepting Terrorist Tainted Funding, Some of the Nation’s Top Universities Have Become Part of the Palestinian Resistance
  4. From Their Support for the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) Movement, to Hosting Terrorists, to Accepting Terrorist Tainted Funding, Some of the Nation’s Top Universities Have Become Part of the Palestinian Resistance
Gaza
  1. Rather than Building a State, Hamas Took over Gaza and Used It as a Launching Pad for Rockets and Terrorism
  2. Neither the State Department nor Other Foreign Ministries Should Accept the Fiction That U.N. Mandates Are Necessary or Effective
  3. Fear and Lack of Access Explain Why So Many Accept Hamas Health Ministry Statistics
  4. The International Court of Justice Demonstrates Bias and Ignores the Fact That Terrorists Are Not Protected Under the Geneva Conventions
Islam
  1. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: ‘The West’s Progress, Built on Blood, Tears, Massacres, and Exploitation, Has Temporarily Overtaken the Human-Centered Civilization of the East.’
  2. Critics of Islam in 2024 Europe Face Repression Akin to the Treatment of Anti-soviet Writers in the 1950s—Silenced with Fear and Police at the Door.
  3. A Joint Podcast Series by the Middle East Forum and the American Jewish University
  4. After Expelling Every Last Crusader from the Holy Land, Saladin’s ‘Retirement Dream’ Was to Invade and Wage Jihad on Christian Europe
Muslims in the US
  1. PHILADELPHIA – August 20, 2024 – A member of Maryland’s “Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention” is out of a job. Ayman Nassar, the second Islamist commissioner to get tossed from the hate crimes board within three months, resigned on August 19 amid public outrage over his role in terror-linked organizations and his history of anti-American, antisemitic, and homophobic hate speech.

    Nassar has accused Israel of harvesting the organs of living Palestinians and shared posts referring to Gaza as a “Holocaust.” He is chairman of the Aafia Foundation, a “terrorist support group” that seeks to free “Lady Al Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui and other convicted terrorists from prison.