The Levant Files

In a terrifying overnight assault that has sent shockwaves across the country, the predominantly Christian town of Suqaylabiyah in Hama province was violently attacked by scores of men from the nearby Sunni town of Qalaat al-Madiq, leaving homes, shops, and cars riddled with bullets and set ablaze.  The incident, which began as a dispute between two men on Friday night, March 27, quickly escalated into a full-scale sectarian rampage, marking the latest and most severe attack on Syria's beleaguered Christian minority since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.  Residents described a night of "terror, fear, and panic." Liyan Dweir, a local shop owner, recounted how his clothes shop was "riddled with bullets" and his children were "terrified during the hours-long assault." Another resident, Nafeh al-Nader, reported that young men broke into his home, kicked a diesel heater, and set a room on fire. Bullet holes were found near a crucifix on a wall...

The ongoing war in the Middle East has left Greece in a precarious position, with Athens grappling with mounting concerns over the conflict's impact on both the national economy and its vital commercial shipping fleet. The Greek government is closely monitoring the economic repercussions of the war. Barely a decade after its devastating financial and socioeconomic collapse, Greece now faces the prospect of renewed economic turbulence driven by regional instability. Rising energy costs, disrupted trade routes, and broader market uncertainty threaten to undermine the fragile recovery that Athens has painstakingly built over the past several years. At the same time, Greece — which controls the world's largest commercial fleet — is facing severe restrictions and growing operational challenges in the strategic straits of the Middle East. According to a well-informed diplomatic source in Athens, the situation could deteriorate significantly if the Ansar Allah movement of Yemen decide...

Turkey has stepped up its diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the ongoing war in the Middle East, with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan maintaining constant communication with all parties involved in the conflict. Ankara's top diplomat has been stressing the need for a peaceful resolution to prevail, as the multifront war continues to inflict devastation across the region. A well-informed source in Ankara, underlining these points, shed light on Turkey's main concern: while Washington has signalled a willingness to explore avenues toward de-escalation, Tel Aviv is in no hurry to halt hostilities. "It is obvious that they aim to achieve significant territorial gains in Lebanon. At the same time, their endgame in Iran remains regime change," the source stressed. According to the source, under these circumstances, the prospects for ending the conflict largely depend on the faction within Washington that opposes the continuation of the war. "There is also an interestin...

Welcome to the latest episode of the Deep Dive Podcast Service, an exclusive production of The Levant Files. In this episode, we move beyond the headlines to provide a granular, 30-day post-mortem of the conflict that began on February 28, 2026. We begin with the staggering "military mathematics" of modern attrition. As the U.S. and Israel engage in a multi-front campaign against Iran, the cost of defense has become unsustainable. Our analysts unpack how the coalition is "throwing Rolexes at mosquitoes"—expending $15 million interceptor missiles to down $20,000 drones. With over 3,500 advanced munitions fired in just one month, the global American defense umbrella is being stretched to a dangerous thinness, forcing the Pentagon to divert resources from Ukraine and the Pacific. The ripples of this conflict are no longer contained within the Levant. We examine the "dual strangulation" of global trade, as Iran exerts de facto control over the Strait of Hormuz...

As the United States wages war across the Middle East and bends the rules-based international order to its will, Tokyo faces an uncomfortable reckoning — how to preserve its security alliance with Washington without surrendering its identity as a champion of international law. The image was stark enough to cause visible discomfort in Tokyo's policy circles: Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, standing beside U.S. President Donald Trump at a Washington dinner reception on 19 March, offering fulsome praise to a leader who has upended the international order — not once, but repeatedly, and now most dramatically through the ongoing American military campaign against Iran and its regional proxies, a conflict that has reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East in a matter of weeks. In a candid editorial published this week by Koji Sonoda, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Political News Section at Japan's leading daily Asahi Shimbun, the discomfort was named plainly: Japan's n...

Beijing is using the global distraction of the US-Iran-Israel war to entrench its position in the South China Sea — deploying propaganda, coast guard vessels and fishing fleets as instruments of strategic pressure. As the guns of a war spanning Lebanon, Iran, and Iraq command the attention of governments and newsrooms worldwide, a quieter but no less consequential contest is unfolding thousands of miles to the east. China is methodically consolidating its grip over the South China Sea — and it is doing so with a sophistication that blends legal argumentation, state media messaging, and the strategic deployment of uniformed coast guard officers alongside ordinary fishermen. The timing is not accidental. Beijing has long understood that geopolitical windows open when great powers are distracted elsewhere. The ongoing US-led military confrontation in the Middle East has absorbed American diplomatic bandwidth, naval assets, and public attention at a moment when Washington can least afford ...

Russian media outlet Izvestia has published a detailed assessment claiming that the United States, Israel, and their coalition partners are facing a mounting shortage of interceptor missiles as Iran continues its sustained ballistic missile and drone campaign across the Middle East. The report, authored by defence analyst Dmitry Kornev and published on 29 March 2026, argues that the pace of Iranian strikes combined with the high rate of interception attempts is rapidly depleting coalition air defence stockpiles. A Multi-Layered Defence Under Pressure According to the Izvestia report, Israel's layered missile defence architecture — encompassing the Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 systems for exo-atmospheric interception, David's Sling for mid-layer threats, and Iron Dome for short-range rockets — has proven unable to achieve full coverage against Iran's evolving strike package. The Russian outlet attributes Iranian breakthroughs in part to a saturation tactic combining ballistic missile...

The US-Israeli military campaign against Iran entered its thirtieth day on Sunday amid a dramatic convergence of escalatory battlefield developments and intensified regional diplomacy, as foreign ministers from Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia convened in Islamabad in a bid to broker a ceasefire — while Washington simultaneously prepared contingency plans for ground operations inside Iranian territory. Tehran Under Fresh Bombardment The morning opened with multiple waves of Israeli airstrikes on the Iranian capital. The Israel Defense Forces announced the completion of "another wave" of strikes targeting temporary Iranian command centres, ballistic missile production and storage facilities, aerial defence systems, and weapons manufacturing sites across Tehran. The IDF noted that Iran had relocated some command infrastructure to mobile units following earlier strikes, several of which were also destroyed. Iranian state media reported loud explosions heard across wester...

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday struck a vehicle travelling in southern Lebanon, killing at least three people, including two journalists working for Lebanese media outlets Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar. The incident has drawn sharp condemnation from Lebanese authorities and media organisations, while the Israeli military asserted that at least one of those killed was an active member of Hezbollah’s intelligence apparatus. The Incident Al Mayadeen Media Network announced the death of its South Lebanon correspondent, Fatima Ftouni, along with her brother Mohammad Ftouni, following the strike. Al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Hassan Shaib — widely known among colleagues as Hajj Ali Shoeib — was also killed in the same attack. According to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent Jamal Ghourabi, the vehicle was visibly marked as a press car and was struck by four precision missiles. He further reported that paramedics who subsequently arrived at the scene were also targeted, resulting in the death of one par...