The Levant Files

Posts

Iranian Sources Talk to TLF: Diplomacy at the Brink. Tehran Signals Hormuz Breakthrough but Warns US Against Escalation

Iran may be close to securing a diplomatic breakthrough over the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian sources told The Levant Files, while warning that mounting American economic and military pressure could trigger a wider confrontation if Washington crosses Tehran’s strategic red lines. The sources portrayed the Islamic Republic as committed to diplomacy but prepared to respond forcefully to any attempt to isolate the country, undermine its regional alliances or threaten its interests. Their remarks also contained carefully calibrated messages for Turkey, Cyprus and Greece over their relations with the United States and Israel. One Iranian diplomatic source said Tehran’s preference for a negotiated settlement was demonstrated by its continuing contacts with Oman, which has traditionally maintained channels of communication with the Islamic Republic. “We are very close to a new diplomatic achievement concerning the Strait of Hormuz,” the source said. “As two friendly neighboring countries, we a...

Naama Lazimi Emerges as Israeli Left’s New Star — and Sets Her Sights on Power

Naama Lazimi has emerged as one of the most popular and combative figures on Israel’s fragmented left, presenting herself as a future education minister and insisting that her political camp must stop apologizing for seeking power. In an extensive profile published by Haaretz, journalist Moran Sharir describes the 40-year-old Democrats lawmaker as a rare politician capable of attracting both veteran Labor supporters and younger progressive activists. Her popularity was demonstrated in the Democrats’ recent primary, in which she reportedly secured more than 90% of the vote. Lazimi first gained national attention in 2022, when the then-little-known parliamentarian unexpectedly finished first in the Labor Party primary. Since then, she has built her public profile through forceful Knesset speeches, frequent appearances at anti-government demonstrations and campaigns on public housing, workers’ rights and social inequality. Her confrontational style has made her a target of Israel’s right,...

TLF SPECIAL: Iran’s Wartime Overhaul Reaches Judiciary After Military Command Reshuffle

Nine senior judicial appointments suggest Tehran is extending its restructuring from the armed forces to the institutions responsible for internal security, prisons and political control. Iran has launched a sweeping reorganisation of its judiciary, extending a broader wartime overhaul of the Islamic Republic’s security establishment as the leadership struggles with the consequences of January’s bloody unrest and the continuing conflict with the United States. Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei appointed nine senior officials on Wednesday, according to the Iranian outlet Nournews . The changes affect some of the judiciary’s most sensitive departments, including the prison system, the state inspectorate, internal intelligence and the administration of justice in Tehran province. Nasser Atabati was named head of the Tehran Province Justice Department, placing him at the centre of an institution that handles many of Iran’s most politically consequential cases. Heydar Asiabi was a...

Turkey Widens Crackdown on Independent Islamic Groups

The operation against Alparslan Kuytul’s Furkan movement came less than a week after the arrest of the Süleymancılar leadership, intensifying concerns that Ankara is moving against religious networks that refuse political alignment with the government. Turkey has launched a second major operation against an influential Islamic movement within a week, detaining Furkan movement leader Alparslan Kuytul, his wife and dozens of followers in a case involving allegations of organised crime, money laundering and fraud. The raids on Wednesday, 19 August, followed an extensive operation against the Süleymancılar community, one of Turkey’s largest and oldest religious networks. Although the authorities insist that both investigations concern financial crimes rather than religious or political activity, their timing has raised questions about whether the government is attempting to dismantle conservative groups that remain independent of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration. The Furkan ...

China's Arctic Gambit: Can the "Ice Silk Road" Bypass Middle East Chokepoints?

As missiles and blockades choke off the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, China is betting on ice-free Arctic summers to keep trade moving. The Chinese shipping firm Sea Legend has formally launched a route it calls the "Ice Silk Road," running from Ningbo on China's east coast through the Arctic along Russia's Northern Sea Route before heading south through the North Sea to Felixstowe in eastern England, according to Al Jazeera . The timing is no accident. The Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the key entry point to the Red Sea, has become largely unusable for many vessels as Iran-backed Houthi forces target shipping linked to Saudi Arabia, disrupting traffic to and from the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on 28 February, prompted Tehran to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz to most tankers — a strait that in peacetime carries roughly a fifth of the world's oil and LNG exports. The appeal is speed. A test voyage along the route last October...

Greek Right-Wing Press Casts Turkish Marine Park Decrees as "Piracy," Warns of Repeat of 1987 Aegean Crisis

Turkey's presidential decrees establishing marine national parks in the Aegean have triggered a sharp reaction in Greece, with the right-wing daily Estia framing the move as an act of " international piracy " bordering on encroachment upon Greek sovereignty. In two articles published Tuesday, the paper argued the decrees — covering waters off Fethiye-Kaş and in the North Aegean — mark the latest chapter in a decades-long pattern of Turkish pressure on Athens. In an unsigned front-page piece, Estia wrote that the marine parks function as a "Trojan horse," with their delimitation violating Greek sovereignty and sovereign rights. The paper argued that when Turkey displays aggression, national unity must prevail and Greece must present a united front against the threat, and cited former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's characterization of the decrees as "piracy." According to Estia, PASOK's members of the European Parliament described the Turkish ...

Israel's Idlib Strikes Hit an Airfield in Turkey's Backyard — And Send Ankara a Message

Unidentified warplanes struck the disused Abu al-Duhur military airfield in eastern Idlib province before dawn on Tuesday, in an attack that Syrian security sources described to AFP as four separate hits concentrated on the runway. No government has claimed responsibility, and the Israeli military offered only a terse "no comment" when asked by AFP. Yet the target, the timing, and the pattern all point toward Israel — and toward a message aimed less at Damascus than at Ankara. Abu al-Duhur has been out of commission since 2012 but remains guarded by forces from Syria's defense ministry, the security source said. The base sits inside Idlib province, the historic heartland of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate that led the offensive which toppled Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and now dominates the government in Damascus. It is also the province where Turkish influence — military, political and intelligence — runs deepest across Syria. That geography matt...

Abdullah Gül warns Turkey has drifted from the AK Party’s founding vision

Former Turkish President Abdullah Gül has voiced concern that Turkey has moved far from the democratic and rights-based vision proclaimed when the Justice and Development Party (AK Party or AKP) was founded, expressing hope that the country can eventually return to its original course. In an interview with BBC Türkçe , Gül divided the AK Party’s history into two sharply different periods and pointed to the extraordinary events that shaped its later years, including the 2016 coup attempt. Although he declined to comment directly on current political disputes, his remarks offered a sombre assessment of the party’s transformation after its early years in power. The AK Party is marking its 25th anniversary this year. Gül, one of its leading founders, recalled that the movement emerged from a bitter split within the Virtue Party, the successor to the Welfare Party, which had been closed by Turkey’s Constitutional Court in 1998. The Virtue Party itself faced a closure case and held a leaders...

IMPORTANT: Drones From Iran Target Kurdish PM's Office as Baghdad Rushes Air Defenses and Tehran Plays Down Backchannel Report

Two explosive drones launched from Iran targeted the private office of Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and the residence of the Region's security agency chief in Erbil province's Pirmam district early Monday, Kurdish counterterrorism forces said, in a brazen escalation that caused no casualties but drew furious condemnation from Erbil. The Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD), affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Security Council, said the two Hadid-110-type drones were "launched from the Iranian side of the border" toward the two sites, calling the attack "completely unacceptable" and warning that "those responsible for carrying them out bear full responsibility for the consequences." Prime Minister Barzani condemned the "reckless and unacceptable attacks in the strongest terms," describing them on X as "a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region," ...