Middle East & Africa

Despite the Shiite cleric’s apparent efforts against Iranian influence in Iraq, his chief inspiration is Iran’s founder and most famous supreme leader.

Ali Khamenei won’t give up power for anyone—not even his president.

The EU’s obsession with security in the Sahel is a reflection of its own anxieties—and a betrayal of its values.

The strategy seeks to grapple with China’s growing influence in Africa without painting African countries as geopolitical pawns.

The top U.S. negotiator is making a last-ditch trip to Vienna.

New elections won’t fix what increasingly looks like a systemic problem.

Few restraints remain for Tunisian strongman Kais Saied after his constitutional referendum passed overwhelmingly and opposition parties boycotted the vote.

Rivals become allies as outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta backs his old nemesis in a closely fought election.

The incompetence of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his team is partly responsible for the current impasse.

As Biden’s Saudi visit showed, state-to-state shaming isn’t the only way to shift the calculus of authoritarian rulers who abuse their citizens.

A constitutional coup in a country that has long been a beacon for freedom would encourage authoritarians across the continent.

Biden’s trip to the region showed that while many Arab nations want to collaborate with Israel, they don’t want to do it in public.

Blinken to travel to the continent after Lavrov’s “charm offensive” tour.

A military coup, natural resources, and roiling insecurity are a recipe for Russian intervention.

Tourism initiatives and conservation of UNESCO heritage sites have led to forced evictions of Indigenous peoples.

Resistance and endurance are pointless if diplomatic and economic opportunities are not seized when they arise.

Hollowed-out posts could leave the United States playing catch up to China and Russia.

Standard theories of global progress continue to be largely limited to raw extraction.

Despite Moscow’s military shortcomings and Western efforts to make it an international pariah, Vladimir Putin remains a capable player in the region.

Beijing remains uninterested in choosing sides in the region’s ongoing power games.

Zamfara state’s decision to provide weapons to untrained individuals could lead to more small-arms proliferation and widespread violence.

Wealthy European countries that sought to halt funding of fossil fuel projects across Africa are now scrambling to secure the continent’s oil and gas.

The U.S. president’s trip was an immediate and time-limited response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, domestic economic woes, and Iran.

“Now, I see that even the woman has a life.”

With control over oil revenues and smuggling profits up for grabs, militias from the western city may once again exercise outsized influence over who leads the country.

The president’s trip to Saudi Arabia and talk of regional security guarantees are a dramatic departure from his rhetoric during the 2020 race.

U.S. intelligence believes Sudan has rebuffed Moscow’s hopes of establishing its first naval base in Africa.

Europe is ramping up its use of the dirtiest fuels—but keeps pressing Africa to stick to draconian green goals.

FP columnist Adam Tooze discusses how fluctuating oil and gas prices are changing the world as we know it.

For too long, Washington has sacrificed its principles to appease the kingdom—and gotten almost nothing in return.

His trip won’t lower gas prices, but it can shore up Washington’s global standing.

After leaning heavily on the United States, Iraq is finding its own footing.

In a new era of superpower conflict, Washington needs to recommit to the region.

The Biden administration is reportedly considering a formal defense agreement with the UAE. Here’s why it shouldn’t.

On the anniversary of its liberation from the Islamic State, Iraq’s second city heals its scars.

Global oil markets have already felt the pinch of Libyan oil shutdowns helped along by Russian mercenaries.

Hossein Taeb’s sudden removal from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is part of a wider project to install a new generation of zealots.

Winter is here. And the country is facing its worst-ever energy crisis.

Both Israel and Saudi Arabia want a stronger deterrence stance on Iran.

Preventing growing Chinese influence in the Middle East is more important than making Riyadh a pariah.

The U.S. president’s upcoming trip to the region is being driven largely by a domestic political crisis linked to the price of oil.

The changes would grant the president almost untrammeled power.

The country’s multiple challenges require a generational change in leadership.

After promising to prosper without international aid, Nana Akufo-Addo’s government is seeking international financial assistance to address an economic crisis.

The M23 rebel group is back, threatening to take much of the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo—and sparking wider regional tensions.

The xenophobic firebrand Nhlanhla “Lux” Mohlauli is courting poor Black voters by stoking hatred of foreigners. It’s working.

As Israel ups the ante of covert warfare, Iran scrambles to respond.

Indigenous people are being forced out from so-called protected areas.

The scramble for battery metals threatens to replicate one of the most destructive dynamics in global economic history.

Targeting senior leaders critical to an enemy program makes strategic sense from Israel’s perspective.

Beijing is stepping up its diplomatic efforts in the Horn of Africa as U.S. influence wanes.

Boris Johnson’s offshoring of asylum-seekers won’t stop the human smuggling trade—or deter people fleeing tyranny who are intent on reaching Britain.

Biden must make it clear to Saudi leaders that continued ballistic missile cooperation with China will jeopardize U.S. missile defense assistance.

Africa’s largest democracy systematically excludes women and young people from politics in a country where the median age is 18.

But a fifth election in less than four years is more likely to produce deadlock—again.

A religious revival rooted in the country’s imperial history has coincided with civil war and the spread of genocidal rhetoric—endangering a diverse and multifaith nation.

Lebanon’s large refugee population has long given up on their futures in the country.

A tenuous U.N. truce has provided relief to civilians but may only entrench a power imbalance in the country’s civil war.

The right-wing Israeli leader’s fragile coalition is vastly preferable to a return of Netanyahu.

King Philippe stopped short of apologizing for colonial-era atrocities, angering the Congolese opposition and diaspora.

Many countries in southern Africa want to unload big stockpiles of ivory to fund conservation, even though the trade is banned.

Special “protocol” treatment has become a way of life for the privileged few.

Talk of security guarantees for the UAE and a thaw in Washington-Riyadh relations could enhance—or weaken—U.S. standing in the region.

A new book tells the forgotten story of migrants stranded in Libya amid United Nations incompetence and Western indifference.

How two decades of misjudgments by Washington helped lead Tehran to the nuclear brink.

Nearly 4 million refugees are caught in the crossfire of Ankara’s heated domestic politics.

Trying to make Mohammed bin Salman a “pariah” was bound to fail.

Ankara’s arms sales to Niger could make the country the center of counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel.

They should be more scared of shutting it off.

A new book on the documents recovered in the Abbottabad raid reveals an organization far weaker than many believed it to be.

The Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) is the one body with enough power to derail Saied’s plans.

Iran is threatening to execute an Iranian Swedish doctor—and human rights activists say the West isn’t doing enough.

Egypt and Israel are undermining their peace treaty—and it needs to be stopped.

Mustafa al-Kadhimi promised reform and freedom of expression. Now he’s using archaic laws to stifle free speech.

Washington’s curtailment of reproductive rights at home and in U.S. foreign aid programs has historically had dramatic effects on women’s rights across the continent.

A new coalition could check—or even dislodge—Hezbollah and its iron grip.

Moscow is already deeply involved in destabilizing wars.

The Kremlin believes it’s the true heir of classical civilization—and is poised to replicate its pillage of Syria in Ukraine under the guise of cultural preservation.

A recent book examines the origins and end of an affair between the film industry and the Jewish state.

As in Afghanistan, Trump’s decisions to withdraw have only emboldened terrorists.

Shireen Abu Akleh was neither a terrorist nor a dissident. But Israeli authorities treated the journalist’s funeral as a threat to their security.

Scolding and paternalism are not winning over African leaders when it comes to ties with Russia.

Settlement growth in the West Bank is a product of population pressure, not policy.

The plan would satisfy concerns across the political spectrum by tackling the thorniest issues in new ways.

Where it counts—in the halls of government and boardrooms—the effort to boycott Israel doesn’t even register.

After years of political deadlock, the country may be starting to shake off its ruling class.

After a long delayed indirect election, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud faces many challenges.

Whether it’s Iran, China, Cuba, or immigration, U.S. President Joe Biden often finds himself stymied by his predecessor’s foreign policy.

Europe’s arguments against restitution have ignored the legitimate claims of African scholars and governments for 50 years.

Spain has traded five decades of neutrality on Western Sahara while getting nothing but a spyware scandal in return.

Asia gets the attention, but the real economic revolution is the inevitable growth of an overlooked continent.

On Sunday, Lebanese go to the polls for the first time since their 2019 uprising.

U.S. officials fear that Africa’s Sahel region is becoming a melting pot of terrorist groups.

Rising wheat, fuel, and fertilizer costs amid a historic drought could lead to mass hunger and instability throughout the Horn of Africa.

An abandoned oil tanker with more than 1 million barrels of crude is rusting off the coast.

Things could get even worse after the pandemic.

The diplomatic resets and outreach underway are just competition by another means.

There have long been tensions between Muslim Mbororo pastoralists and Christian groups, but the war between Anglophone secessionists and the government has enflamed them.

Big-budget thrillers are now being filmed in the kingdom, but culture clashes could hinder the industry’s success.

But too much pressure could backfire.

Biden faces pressure to secure release of Americans wrongfully detained abroad.

Gulf Arab countries are copying Qatar in hedging against U.S. power. Iran is thrilled.

New legislation seeks to tackle a stubborn security threat, but members of the government are undermining their own policy.

Self-delusion and negligence stopped governments and aid agencies from facilitating a genuine and lasting transition to democracy.

A food crisis looms as the price of wheat and other staples surges.

Racism is keeping rich societies from benefitting from increased migration.

Cameroon’s president signs a security deal with Putin amid war in Ukraine and conflict at home.

The French military watched what appeared to be Wagner operatives attempting a false-flag operation to discredit the West.

But the group is hoping for a resurgence while the West is distracted in Ukraine.

Moscow and Washington battle at the U.N. to assign responsibility for a looming food crisis that threatens millions with starvation.

Iran is a cautionary tale that stubborn autocracies can’t be disciplined with sanctions.

The world’s sixth-largest oil producer still suffers from fuel shortages and power outages.

Boris Johnson’s government is partnering with an authoritarian regime in a legally questionable effort to make Britain’s asylum-seeker problem disappear.

Russian mercenaries fill Mali vacuum as European powers pursue an exit.

Deporting Uyghur refugees is inhumane and illegal.

Committed nonalignment, fear of upsetting China, and reliance on Russia for arms and security led many countries to ignore Washington’s demands.

David Satterfield is expected to leave his post after just a few months on the job, leaving a big vacuum at a bad time.

The loss of Ukrainian and Russian wheat can be made up elsewhere.

The Kremlin is reviving the brutal methods it used in Syria, and the World Health Organization is refusing to name the crime and its perpetrator.

Rich donor countries are working to deprioritize poverty reduction and economic development in the global south.

It’s time to recognize they were living on borrowed time.

Wagner Group mercenaries have transformed the conflict, but the country is still far from a workable peace deal.

A revived nuclear pact could benefit Washington and Tehran but is proving a hard sell.

People fleeing conflict in Cameroon wonder why they aren’t getting the same treatment as Ukrainians.

An Iranian nuclear deal is more important than the symbolism of a terrorist list.

War in Ukraine and Yemen has strained relations between Washington and its Arab allies. Small moves from both sides could put things back on track.

Africa and Asia’s long-standing ties to Russia and resentments against Washington keep them on the fence—for now.

The war in Ukraine has led to rising costs for fuel, food, and fertilizer from Ghana and Nigeria to Egypt—and it could trigger instability.

The Kremlin has been recruiting thousands of hardened Syrian fighters to join its war in Ukraine.

A new nuclear deal will strengthen the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps without derailing the regime’s long-term ambitions.

Saudi Arabia’s cooperation on lowering oil prices will come at the cost of the West’s values.

The status quo of military occupation is working well for those at the top of the PLO.

Politics in Tehran may finally fall into sync with the commercial logic of expanding energy markets.

International solidarity with Kyiv in the face of Russian aggression is admirable. Tigrayans brutalized by Ethiopia and Eritrea deserve the same.

A new offshore oil discovery could be a godsend—or disaster—for one of Africa’s most unequal countries.

Riyadh could make a difference in oil markets but has chosen to side with fellow authoritarians rather than the United States.

With its economy in a tailspin, Turkey is repairing ties with former enemies in the region.

Officials in Washington say no to independence but make room for closer ties.

ANC leaders are letting Soviet nostalgia outweigh morality.

The continent’s major energy producers are ready to help meet European demand, but they lack the capacity and investment.

Young Syrians have already served as mercenaries elsewhere.

It’s time for a new way forward.

To stop financing Moscow’s brutal wars, Berlin should help African countries develop their energy sectors.

The death of political Islam in the Middle East has been greatly exaggerated.

Iraq’s most recent election promised change but ended up entrenching the establishment.

Moscow is seeking to use the Iran deal to shield itself from the full effect of Western sanctions.

The self-proclaimed champion of anti-imperialism is now sugarcoating an imperial war.

The IPCC report highlights a major financing gap for climate adaptation research focused on the continent.

Israel says it’s well positioned to mediate a truce between Russia and Ukraine. It also has interests to protect.

A new regional alliance is undermining Bahrain’s stability at home.

Ethiopia can end its civil war by upholding its constitution.

Washington’s security guarantees now seem worth even less.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it’s “inconceivable” that Israel doesn’t stand by its allies and clearly denounce Russia’s invasion.

Reports about a possible Atlantic base reveal more about Washington’s military priorities than Beijing’s.

The Israeli government is feigning neutrality—but its long-term national interests mean it has no choice but to side with the West.

Fleeing African students have been left stranded at the border as a food crisis looms for countries dependent on Russian and Ukrainian grain.

Designating the Houthis as terrorists will serve only to confirm their existing biases.

The UAE withholds criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as it seeks Moscow’s diplomatic backing in Yemen. 

Focusing on key military leaders and their networks can force the regime to change course.

Disagreements over intellectual property waivers for COVID-19 vaccines are hindering closer ties.

Oppression should be condemned, regardless of who is behind it.

A growing number of Lebanese men are deciding their best hopes lie with jihadis next door.

Israel hones invasive surveillance technology on Palestinians before it is exported abroad.

Experts warn of the driest conditions in over four decades, fueled in part by climate change.

This was the predictable outcome of a deeply flawed process.

Rekindling the nuclear deal with Tehran will solve one regional problem—and cause others.

This is a chance to display democratic values—and establish a better order.

A return to sanctions would only worsen a humanitarian catastrophe, experts warn.

The question of who controls the region around Idlib has become an international problem.

Baghdad can’t rebuild its infrastructure and agricultural sector when its land remains littered with thousands of explosive devices.

The ground in the Middle East is shifting yet again.

The country that sparked the Arab Spring could be headed back to permanent authoritarian rule.

Is it a necessary concession for humanitarian reasons, or part of a trend toward normalization?

The group may no longer have its caliphate, but it’s far from defeated.

Turn the G-20 into the G-21 by adding the African Union.

He wasn’t a super creative leader on the battlefield. But he didn’t need to be.

Peace efforts must address the group’s legitimate fears rather than casting them as the main obstacle to reconciliation.

Washington has sidelined the country’s long-term interests in favor of short-term gains.

The devastating cycle of tit-for-tat attacks between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Houthis will not end via diplomatic doublespeak.

Since 2009, the United States has supported the country’s military with funding, weapons, and training.

Without real reform at home, Iranians will continue to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Regional organizations like the African Union and ECOWAS suspended the country’s ruling junta. But do they have double standards when it comes to democracy?

Beijing was once wary of the region. Now, it’s all-in.

It’s only a matter of time until Saudi military advancements force Iran to respond in kind.

A little over a year after the Abraham Accords, Israel and its new Arab partners are seeing dividends.

An unfinished war has been almost forgotten by the West.

The Houthis, Saudis, and Emiratis are letting people starve while corruption and mismanagement of aid lines elites’ pockets.

Cameroon’s regime wouldn’t be the first to use sports to whitewash a brutal conflict.

Just when the United Arab Emirates thought it was done with focusing on foreign policy, they’re getting pulled back in.

Love him or hate him, Russia’s man in Vienna has become the Iran deal’s unofficial spokesman.

West Africa is rocked by yet another coup as the military seizes power in Ouagadougou and holds onto control in Bamako.

A former government official recounts how the prime minister’s failed reform agenda paved the way for war in Tigray.

The United Arab Emirates faces a militant consequence of the Abraham Accords.

Excluding key Tigrayan and Oromo leaders will undermine the legitimacy of the process and make it harder to achieve peace.

Will Raisi succeed where previous Iranian regimes have failed?

By purging veteran politicians, abandoning the pretense of free elections, and letting the welfare state decay, Tehran is playing with fire.

The terms offered would keep him out of prison but also out of office.

The Syrian leader’s crimes will forever be recalled alongside the world’s worst tyrannical butchers.

Big Tech ignored policies that enable disinformation and propaganda across the continent.

Not building on the Abraham Accords has been the biggest missed opportunity of his first year.