The Levant Files

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Flashpoint Sanaa: Airstrikes and Retaliation Shatter Yemen’s Fragile Truce Amid Broader Middle East Crisis

The fragile, UN-brokered ceasefire that has largely dictated the pace of the Yemeni conflict since early 2022 has dramatically collapsed over the last 24 hours, pushing the Arabian Peninsula back to the precipice of open war. In a sharp and sudden escalation, the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led military coalition struck the runway at the Houthi-controlled Sanaa International Airport on Monday. The military operation was specifically designed to intercept an Iranian civilian aircraft attempting to land in what the coalition deemed a brazen violation of sovereign airspace. The targeted Iranian flight was reportedly transporting a senior Houthi delegation returning from Tehran, where they had been attending the state funeral of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While the coalition successfully thwarted the Sanaa landing by rendering the main runway inoperable, intelligence sources indicate a secondary Iranian flight carrying officials managed to touch down at the co...

US and Iran Trade Blows Over Hormuz as Both Sides Reach for Leverage, Not Victory

The United States and Iran entered a third consecutive night of direct military exchanges early Tuesday, as Washington’s reimposed naval blockade and a new 20-percent transit levy on Strait of Hormuz shipping collided with Tehran’s insistence that it, not the US, controls the waterway. US Central Command carried out a five-hour wave of strikes overnight, hitting targets across Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa and Bandar Abbas, which it said were intended to further degrade Iran’s capacity to threaten commercial shipping. Iranian state media separately reported explosions on Kish, Jam and Qeshm islands. In one notable first, CENTCOM said it used maritime drones over the weekend to strike an Iranian submarine and a maintenance facility at the Bandar Abbas naval base. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps responded in kind, claiming ballistic-missile strikes on a US air base in Jordan and hitting American-linked facilities in Kuwait, while Jordanian state media said four Iranian mi...

The Mossad's Ahmadinejad Gambit: A Regime-Change Plan Built on Sand

Israel's foreign intelligence service, the Mossad, spent nearly three years cultivating former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential post-regime-change leader for Tehran, according to a major investigative exposé published by Haaretz on July 13, 2026. The report, authored by Michael Hauser Tov and based on interviews with more than 30 senior political, defense, diplomatic and foreign sources, traces how a relationship that once seemed unthinkable — between Israeli intelligence and a man long associated with Holocaust denial and hostility toward Israel — evolved into what Haaretz describes as one of the most ambitious covert undertakings in the country's history. From adversary to asset According to the investigation, Mossad analysts had, roughly a year before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, already begun tracking a shift in Ahmadinejad's posture since he left the presidency in 2013: he had moved from being one of the regime's fiercest defenders to on...

Syria’s Transitional Parliament Sworn In as Constitutional Lawyer Abdul Hamid al-Awak Elected Speaker

Syria’s newly formed People’s Assembly held its inaugural session on Sunday, July 12, taking the constitutional oath in a ceremony attended by President Ahmad al-Sharaa and marking the first legislative milestone since the fall of the Assad regime. The session combined the swearing-in of members with the election of the assembly’s presidential council, culminating in the selection of Dr. Abdul Hamid Aqil al-Awak, a constitutional lawyer and former judge, as Speaker. A New Chamber, Built on a Transitional Formula The 210-seat assembly was established under Decree No. 143 of 2025, which set the legal framework for legislative authority during Syria’s transition. Under that arrangement, one-third of the seats — 70 in total — were filled by presidential appointment, while the remaining 140 were occupied by members chosen through electoral colleges across Syria’s governorates. Sunday’s opening session brought together both appointed and elected members in line with the Constitutional Dec...

Not Quite War, No Longer Peace: US and Iran Trade a Second Night of Strikes as Hormuz Talks Continue in Parallel

The United States and Iran entered a second consecutive night of direct military exchanges over the weekend into Monday, with US Central Command confirming strikes on dozens of Iranian targets and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) retaliating against US-linked positions across the Gulf — even as diplomatic contacts over the Strait of Hormuz continued in Muscat. The pattern emerging is neither a collapsed ceasefire nor a contained crisis, but something in between: a live-fire negotiation, conducted with missiles. What Happened CENTCOM said its forces began a fresh wave of strikes at 5:00 p.m. ET, targeting Iranian air-defense systems, coastal radar installations, missile and drone infrastructure, and IRGC small boats around the Strait of Hormuz — the second such round in as many nights. Washington framed the operation as degrading Iran’s capacity to threaten commercial shipping; President Trump said the strikes were ordered “to hold Iranian forces accountable.” Iran’s resp...

Iranian Media Spotlight US-Iran Escalation Over Strait of Hormuz as Qatari and Omani Mediation Efforts Intensify

Persian-language Iranian media outlets have been closely tracking a sharp escalation in tensions between Iran and the United States over the past day and in recent days, centered on military exchanges, incidents in and around the Strait of Hormuz, and the strained status of a ceasefire or memorandum of understanding (MOU). Coverage from major agencies emphasizes Iranian responses to alleged US aggressions, disputes over maritime security arrangements, and active—but challenged—diplomatic interventions by Qatar and Oman. According to Fars News Agency, developments in the past week between Iran and the US have included military actions alongside diplomatic activity. As detailed in recent Fars reports, Iranian official Mohammad Baqaei provided explanations about Saturday negotiations held in Muscat (Oman), highlighting ongoing diplomatic channels even as field tensions persist. Fars also reported on a container ship that closed the Strait of Hormuz last night and noted Qatar’s move...

US Launches Major New Strikes on Iran; Tehran Closes Vital Waterway and Retaliates

Tensions in the US-Iran conflict escalated sharply over the past 12–24 hours as the United States conducted a fresh round of airstrikes on Iranian military targets in direct response to an Iranian attack on a commercial vessel and Tehran’s declaration closing the Strait of Hormuz. Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes on US and allied military sites across multiple Gulf countries, raising fears of a broader regional war. The Trigger: Attack on the M/V GFS Galaxy and Closure of the Strait Early on July 12, 2026 (local time), Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy targeted the Cyprus-flagged container ship M/V GFS Galaxy in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian forces fired on the vessel for allegedly using an “unauthorized route” and ignoring directions to transit through Iranian-controlled waters. The attack damaged the engine room, sparked a fire, and forced the crew to abandon ship in lifeboats. One crew member remains missing. In the immediate aftermath, the...

Continental Confusion: Turkish Tabloid Declares War on the Wrong Europe

In what future journalism textbooks may charitably describe as "an ambitious geography own-goal," Turkey's Sözcü newspaper has managed the impressive feat of being furious at the correct topic, aimed at entirely the wrong institution, and somehow still confident about the whole thing. Here is what actually happened, for anyone keeping score at home. On 8 July, the European Parliament — Brussels, EU, the actual legislature Turkey has spent decades not joining — passed a resolution on the effects of Turkey's 1974 intervention on Cypriot women and girls, drafted under rapporteur Eleonora Meleti of the FEMM Committee. Ankara's Foreign Ministry, never one to let an insult go unrebutted, declared the resolution "null and void" the following day and accused it of harbouring baseless slander against the Turkish Armed Forces. A perfectly ordinary diplomatic spat, by regional standards. And then Sözcü arrived, notebook in hand, apparently having left its atlas...

Russia Signals Openness to Turkey Reselling S-400 Systems to UAE, Middle East Eye Reports

Russia has indicated it views a potential sale of S-400 air defence systems currently operated by Turkey to the United Arab Emirates in a favorable light, according to multiple sources cited by Middle East Eye (MEE), though the outlet reported that negotiations have not yet been finalized. The S-400 systems, which Turkey purchased from Russia in 2019, led to Turkey's expulsion from the F-35 fighter jet programme and prompted a series of US sanctions targeting Turkey's defence industry. Six F-35 jets remain in US storage after their transfer to Turkey was blocked by American legislation in 2020. According to MEE, the S-400 issue and Turkey's potential return to the F-35 programme have become central topics of discussion as Washington and Ankara have worked to repair relations since Donald Trump returned to office in 2025. Under the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the US government must confirm that Turkey no longer possesses the S-400 systems before Turkey can r...