By bne Tehran bureau Turkey’s recent decision to end a long-standing tax exemption on fuel for Iranian transit trucks has triggered a major backlog at the Bazargan border crossing and left some 300 trucks stranded daily in harsh winter conditions.

An Iranian nuclear weapon would be a game-changer in the Middle East. Should the Islamic Republic of Iran acquire nuclear weapons, at a minimum, Iranian leaders would feel so secure behind their own nuclear deterrent that they could export terrorism without fear of retaliation.

Iran is weaker and more vulnerable than it has been in decades, likely since its decadelong war with Iraq or even since the 1979 revolution. This weakness has reopened the debate about how the United States and its partners should approach the challenges posed by Iran.

Geopolitics abhors a power vacuum. One country’s loss is another’s gain, and the space left by Iran is being occupied, for now, by Turkey. This should come as no surprise: the history of the Middle East between the 16th and 18th centuries was that of struggle between the Ottoman and Persian empires, and it seems to be reviving in the 21st century.

Turkey could pose a greater threat to Israel than Iran in Syria if it supports a hostile “Sunni Islamist” force in Damascus, an Israeli government commission said on Monday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday denied claims by Turkish media that they had received over 1,500 drones from Iran, saying their drones are locally made.

The Middle East is undergoing a profound transformation as new rivalries reshape its geopolitical order. For decades, the defining conflict in the region was a “cold war” between Iran and the Gulf Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia. This struggle, steeped in sectarian and strategic divides, fueled proxy wars and power struggles across the region.

Iran used its Russian-built Bushehr reactor to legitimize orders and imports it could then divert to supply its covert program. Speaking on the centennial of the beginning of Turkey’s ...

At least 57 kolbars were killed by Iranian security forces in the border areas and 282 were injured in 2024, an increase from the previous year’s tally, according to a human rights watchdog’s annual report.

Pro-Israel triumphalists are celebrating a trifecta: in the course of a little over a year, Israel has felled or significantly set back its three most troublesome enemies: Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

The human cost has been enormous. 600,000 died in Syria under Obama and Assad and Putin. Hundreds of thousands have died in Ukraine under Biden and Putin. Tens of thousands have died in Gaza under Biden and Hamas. It is a lot, especially for wars that we have been determined not to win.

President-elect Trump has expressed support for a negotiated solution with Iran on all outstanding issues, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has stated that Tehran is ready for