Category: Shiites
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Why Hezbollah is unlikely to engage in the Israel-Iran war—for now
MENASource June 17, 2025 • 8:54 am ET David Daoud Israel’s inevitable strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities has finally occurred. The Israelis on Friday launched extensive, non-stop airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, coupled with assassinations of Tehran’s senior-most officers and nuclear scientists. Iran had built up Hezbollah’s massive arsenal to deter precisely such…
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What Lebanon’s municipal election results mean for Hezbollah
MENASource June 4, 2025 • 9:37 am ET David Daoud Lebanon’s political machine is moving again. In May, the Lebanese concluded country-wide municipal and mayoral elections—their first in nine years—on the heels of Joseph Aoun filling Beirut’s two-year presidential vacancy, and an uncharacteristically speedy appointment of a prime minister and cabinet. Mere momentum should not…
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The Hojjatieh Society and Politics in Iran
Dr. Moatasim Siddiq Dr. Mohammed al-Sayyad In contemporary Iran, critical scrutiny is increasingly directed toward the competence and coherence of the state’s administrative, political and ideological structures, particularly in light of the mounting crises that have recently undermined the broader objectives of the “Islamic Republic.” Externally, Iran-aligned groups have suffered substantial setbacks in Lebanon, Syria…
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The Need to Reexamine the Concept of the “Shiite Axis”
INSS Insight No. 1988, May 27, 2025 The major developments that have unfolded in the region since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip—and especially in recent months—require a renewed examination of the relevance of the concept of the “Shiite Axis” led by Iran. Over the past two decades, Tehran has worked to…
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In Syria, a Shiite shrine and community navigate a changed landscape
SAYYIDA ZEINAB, Syria — At the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, rituals of faith unfold: worshippers kneel in prayer, visitors raise their palms skyward or fervently murmur invocations as they press their faces against an ornate structure enclosing where they believe the granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad is entombed. But it’s more than just religious devotion that the…
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Trump Has Created a New Mideast Order—Without Israel
The new order will be decidedly less American, likely toxic to the Israelis, and overwhelmingly Islamist in nature. Did the United States lose the Global War on Terror? This is perhaps the only takeaway that one can make from the recent, radical maneuvers by President Donald Trump in the Greater Middle East. It’d be easy…
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The India-Pakistan Conflict Is Rapidly Becoming a Proxy War
Regional powers—notably Saudi Arabia and Iran—are increasingly choosing a side in the ongoing fracas between New Delhi and Islamabad. As the India-Pakistan crisis continues to escalate, a curious diplomatic element has gone largely unreported in the Western press. Representatives from the governments of both the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia…
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Islamist Opposition in the Russian Federation
PSCRP-BESA Reports No 125 (April 18, 2025) According to official data from the 2021 census, of the five largest national minorities in the Russian Federation—each numbering over one million—four are traditionally Sunni Muslim peoples: Tatars (4.7 million), Chechens (1.7 million), Bashkirs (1.6 million), and Avars (just over 1 million). The proportion of “ethnic Muslims” in…
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US and Iran set for landmark talks with nuclear and regional stability at stake
US and Iranian delegations are meeting in Muscat on Saturday for landmark talks that could either pave the way for a new nuclear agreement and broader regional understandings, or risk fuelling further conflict in an already volatile Middle East. Signs of openness, but also threats, have preceded the negotiations, the first between a Donald Trump…
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The Dilemma of Dismantling Parallel Militias in Iraq: An Alternative Perspective
Introduction For nearly four decades, Arab countries have repeatedly called on regional and international actors to take responsibility for overlooking the dangers posed by violent non-state actors to security and stability. Over the past 20 years, they have also put forward constructive approaches to mitigate these threats, emphasizing geographical proximity and the militia-driven logic that…