The Levant Files

Greece is preparing to acquire a multi-layered Israeli air defense system worth approximately €3.5 billion, a major procurement that reflects both Athens’s military modernization programme and its growing strategic cooperation with Israel and Cyprus amid persistent tensions with Turkey. According to an analysis published by The Jerusalem Post, the Israeli systems will be incorporated into Greece’s planned “Achilles Shield,” a nationwide air and missile defense network. The package is expected to include Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ David’s Sling for long-range interception, Israel Aerospace Industries’ Barak MX for medium-range threats and Rafael’s Spyder system for short-range defense. The proposed deployment would give Greece protection against aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, rockets and certain ballistic threats. David’s Sling, reportedly capable of interceptions at ranges of up to 300 kilometres, is expected to be based mainly on the Greek mainland. Barak MX batteries could ...

Saudi Arabia's air defences intercepted a wave of drones over its Eastern Province on Monday, in an attack Riyadh blamed on Iran-aligned armed groups operating from Iraqi territory — the clearest sign yet that the five-month war between Washington and Tehran is spilling outward into the Gulf's energy heartland. The Saudi Defence Ministry said several unmanned aerial vehicles had been destroyed over the past hours as they attempted to strike oil facilities in the east of the kingdom. Ministry spokesman Major-General Turki al-Maliki described the launches as terrorist attempts mounted from Iraq by Iranian-backed militias, and asserted the kingdom's right to self-defence and to respond at a time and place of its choosing — language that leaves open the prospect of Saudi retaliation across the Iraqi border. Yemen's Houthi movement claimed a parallel operation. Military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had used drones against sites tied to the supply and transport of cru...

by Dr. Nikolaos Stelgias The Levant Files Chief Editor, Journalist, Historian, Writer, Researcher    The Secretary-General of the United Nations arrives in Cyprus on Monday night, as part of a wider tour of the Levant, to take the temperature of a conflict that has outlived almost every diplomat who has tried to settle it. The stated purpose is modest: to observe the situation on the ground and to sound out the two sides. The unstated purpose is more delicate — to establish whether anything is left of a negotiating process that has not formally existed for nine years. The Cyprus talks have been on hold since July 2017, when the Crans-Montana summit collapsed over the two issues that have always been the hardest: security — meaning the future of Turkey's military presence and of the 1960 guarantee system — and power-sharing, meaning how much political weight a community of roughly one-fifth of the island's citizens is entitled to hold in a reunified state. Everything since has ...

For the English version of the article please follow this link . تأتي عملية كييف طويلة المدى بعد ساعات فقط من إعلان واشنطن أن موسكو "غير مشاركة" في الحرب ضد إيران. يستدعي هذا التتابع الزمني القراءة والتأمل — لكن الأدلة المتاحة لا تكفي للوصول إلى استنتاج جازم. أسفرت عملية نُفذت بطائرات مسيّرة أوكرانية طويلة المدى في بحر قزوين عن مقتل بحار واحد على الأقل وإصابة آخر على متن سفينة تجارية إيرانية، لِتفتح بذلك جبهة بحرية في مسرح عمليات لم يبرز في الحرب الروسية الأوكرانية حتى الآن إلا كمنصة لإطلاق صواريخ "كاليبر" المجنحة. وأكدت وزارة الخارجية الإيرانية وقوع الانفجار، واستدعت القائم بالأعمال الأوكراني في طهران، ممتعضة ومنددة بما وصفته بأنه "عمل إجرامي وعدائي". كما تابع وزير الخارجية عباس عراقجي القضية مع مسؤولة السياسة الخارجية في الاتحاد الأوروبي كايا كالاس، حثاً إياها على اتخاذ موقف أوروبي حاسم. وأفاد جهاز الأمن الأوكراني (SBU) بأن مشغلي الطائرات المسيرة طويلة المدى التابعين له ضربوا مروحة من الأهداف في عمق الأراضي الروسية خلال الليل، بما في ذلك وسائط دفاع جوي ب...

Brussels failed to deliver the concrete openings expected by Turkey, while making progress on Cyprus a precondition for any advancement in Turkey–EU relations. Ankara’s response was not to soften its Cyprus policy, but to adopt a more cautious and rigid stance. The cautious optimism prior to UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ visit is now giving way to an increasingly pronounced uncertainty. Until recently, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ visit to Cyprus was viewed against the backdrop of an unusually hopeful atmosphere—one not seen in a long time. On the island, there was a Turkish Cypriot leader who had returned to the framework of a federal settlement, a Greek Cypriot leader claiming readiness for negotiations, a UN Secretary-General putting his personal political weight behind the process, and finally, a European Union eager to assume a more active role. This alignment raised expectations that a new and serious diplomatic process could, at the very least, be initiated. A...

"Years of lawlessness and impunity for attacks has turned the West Bank into a powder keg waiting to explode, and decisive action is urgently needed." — Sarah Sanbar, Human Rights Watch A localized confrontation between Israeli settlers and local residents in the northern West Bank village of Tell has sparked a major military crackdown and a wave of vigilante violence. Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) deployed five additional combat companies, raided a major hospital in Nablus, and imposed military lockdowns on dozens of Palestinian communities. Simultaneously, Palestinian officials warned that widespread retaliatory arson and assaults by armed Israeli settlers are pushing the region toward an uncontrollable spiral. The Catalyst: Deadly Shootout in Tell The current surge in violence traces back to the morning of Friday, July 24. According to local accounts and witness reports, a group of 25 to 50 Israeli settlers—including armed individuals from the ne...

Kyiv's long-range operation lands hours after Washington declared Moscow "not participating" in the war against Iran. The sequence invites a reading — but not, on the available evidence, a conclusion. A Ukrainian long-range drone operation in the Caspian Sea has killed at least one sailor aboard an Iranian commercial vessel and injured another, opening a maritime front in a theatre that until now had figured in the Russia–Ukraine war mainly as a launch platform for Kalibr cruise missiles. Tehran's Foreign Ministry confirmed the explosion, summoned Ukraine's chargé d'affaires in Tehran, and denounced what it called a hostile and criminal act. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pressed the case with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, urging a decisive European response. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said its long-range drone operators struck a set of targets deep inside Russia overnight, including air-defence assets near Rostov-on-Don and several vessels ...

While the pause in direct U.S.-Iranian strikes offers brief breathing room for Omani diplomacy, the simultaneous escalation in the Caspian Sea and Red Sea demonstrates that the conflict's strategic footprint continues to broaden across Eastern Europe and the Middle East. A fragile tactical pause took hold between the United States and Iran on Sunday following nearly two weeks of intense direct strikes, opening a narrow diplomatic window mediated by Oman. However, even as Washington and Tehran refrained from direct bombardments overnight, the conflict expanded into new territory with a dramatic Ukrainian attack on Iranian shipping in the Caspian Sea and renewed Houthi strikes on Saudi oil facilities. Pause Driven by Munition Constraints and Diplomacy For the second consecutive night, U.S. military forces paused airstrikes on targets inside Iran following 13 straight days of heavy aerial bombardment. In a mirrored response, Iranian army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia confirm...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a direct warning to the United Kingdom and regional allies, declaring that Britain and any country supporting the United States in a conflict with Tehran will become a "definite and legitimate target" for military retaliation. According to reporting published by Reuters on July 25, a spokesperson for Iran's Revolutionary Guards delivered an explicit ultimatum on Saturday during an interview broadcast on Iranian state broadcaster IRIB. The spokesperson stated that Britain, along with Gulf states and any other nation backing the United States in a conflict, would be considered a legitimate military target. The spokesperson specifically highlighted that U.S. strategic bombers had recently utilized British airfields to support operational activities. The Levant Files Warned First Saturday's statement represents a continuation and widening of threats previously analyzed in detail by The Levant Files on July 24. Th...