JEDDAH — More than 48,000 foreign pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia by April 24 for Hajj 2026, according to aggregated figures
MoreNICOSIA — Saudi Arabia was not in the room when the European Union convened Arab leaders at Cyprus’s Filoxenia Conference Centre on
MoreWASHINGTON — The Pentagon told the House Armed Services Committee on April 22 that clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz
MoreDUBAI — A US-sanctioned supertanker loaded with two million barrels of Iranian crude halted near Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz
MoreLONDON — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps did not seize a random container ship on April 22. By targeting MSC Francesca —
MoreISLAMABAD — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in Islamabad late Friday with what IRNA described as a “small delegation” — his
MoreJEDDAH — Saudi Arabia engineered the three-week Lebanon ceasefire extension announced on April 23 without appearing in the room where it was
MoreWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump faces a May 1 deadline under the War Powers Resolution to either obtain congressional authorization for the
MoreContents Three Ships in Five Days What Is the Dark Fleet — and Why Can’t a Ceasefire Touch It? The Tifani and
MoreMANAMA — The Gulf Cooperation Council’s military coordination apparatus met in Bahrain on April 24 — not as a six-nation summit but
MoreWASHINGTON — The United States has deployed Ukrainian-built counter-drone technology and Ukrainian military trainers at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia,
MoreRIYADH — South Korea dispatched Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik as a special envoy to Riyadh between April 7 and 14,
MoreJEDDAH — The most dangerous outcome for Saudi Arabia is not a failed negotiation over the Strait of Hormuz. It is a
MoreTOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday and asked him directly for more
MoreRIYADH — Donald Trump’s April 23 order for the US Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” laying mines in the Strait
MoreTable of Contents What Is the STEP Quartet? How Did Four States With No Treaty Broker a Ceasefire? The Architecture of Failure
MoreRIYADH — A classified Pentagon briefing to the House Armed Services Committee on April 22 confirmed what shipping insurers and Saudi fiscal
MoreRIYADH — China did not volunteer to become the mediator of the Hormuz crisis. The structural geometry of the war — Beijing’s
MoreTEHRAN — Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen alive on camera in 45 days. A US-Israeli intelligence memo shared with Gulf allies
MoreNEW DELHI — India became the first state actor to suffer a documented legal injury from Iran’s authorization ceiling on April 18,
MoreTEHRAN — Iran’s hardline establishment responded to President Trump’s open-ended ceasefire extension on April 22, 2026, not with diplomacy but with a
MoreRIYADH — The ceasefire extension that Donald Trump announced on April 21 does not contain a single clause requiring Iran to restore
MoreTable of Contents Pioneer and Chief Head West The Mine Clearance Gap Since September 2025 Why Do Wooden-Hulled Ships From 1992 Matter
MoreTEHRAN — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on April 20 formally labelled the United States naval blockade of Iranian ports an “act
MoreJEDDAH — Ahmad Al Shara landed at King Abdulaziz International Airport on April 21, one day after Donald Trump extended the Iran-Saudi
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