The Levant Files

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has stepped up drone strikes on the central city of El-Obeid, targeting fuel depots, power stations and water infrastructure in an apparent bid to weaken the Sudanese army's grip on the strategically vital hub before a feared ground assault, according to reporting from the area. The Sudanese army says it remains in control of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, but the RSF has continued strikes aimed at degrading the city's defenses and pressuring civilians to flee, even as escape routes grow increasingly perilous. A City on the Edge The UN's human rights office has warned of an impending "catastrophe" in El-Obeid, cautioning that the city could become the next site of major ground combat between the army and the RSF, following the paramilitary's capture of El-Fasher in North Darfur last October after an 18-month siege. Independent investigators concluded that the assault on El-Fasher bore ...

Iran has yet to grant the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to nuclear facilities damaged in the recent Israeli and American strikes, and the country's stockpile of enriched uranium remains unaccounted for at those sites, according to a report by Kayhan London. Citing an interview IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi gave to the Russian outlet RIA Novosti, Kayhan London reported that Iran's enriched uranium reserves have not been removed from — or verified at — the facilities struck by Israeli and U.S. forces. Grossi stressed the necessity of inspector access to the sites, saying the Agency had formally requested such access from Tehran but "has not yet received a response," Kayhan London quoted him as saying. The report noted that Iranian officials have pushed back firmly against any near-term inspection. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi was cited as saying there is "no plan" to allow the Agency access to the attacked facilities or ...

With more than 170 American strikes on Iranian soil in forty-eight hours, missiles falling on four Gulf states and Jordan, and “technical talks” somehow still alive, the US–Iran confrontation has settled into a self-sustaining rhythm of bombardment and half-hearted negotiation — with no exit visible on the horizon. If the past week has demonstrated anything, it is that the war between the United States and Iran has stopped being a conflict that moves toward either victory or peace. It has become a system — a closed loop in which strikes generate talks, talks generate strikes, and both sides have learned to live inside the wreckage of their own agreements. The June memorandum of understanding, signed with theatrical solemnity by Donald Trump at Versailles and Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, survived barely three weeks. Its collapse this week surprised no one, least of all its authors. A Ceasefire That Was Never Quite a Ceasefire The chronology of the collapse follows a script t...

  Iranian-American actress Sepideh Moafi has earned the first Emmy nomination of her career, securing a place among television's top performers with a nod for For Moafi, the nomination represents far more than a personal milestone. It also marks a significant moment for refugee representation, Iranian-American actors and the broader evolution of diversity in American television. Born in 1985 in a refugee camp in Regensburg, Germany, Moafi is the daughter of Iranian parents who fled the country in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. After spending time seeking asylum in Germany, her family eventually settled in the United States, where she grew up and later trained as both an opera singer and an actress, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine. Her life story has become an integral part of her public identity, informing both her artistic choices and her humanitarian advocacy. Moafi's Emmy-nominated performance comes in the second ...

For decades, the central question in the US-Iran confrontation was whether Tehran would obtain the ultimate deterrent: a nuclear weapon. But in the latest round of escalation, Iran’s hardline media and conservative political establishment appear to be advancing a different answer. In their reading, Iran may not need an atom bomb to impose strategic costs on Washington and its allies. It already has the Strait of Hormuz. That is the central message running through Iran’s conservative and hardline outlets after the latest exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran. The line is not merely that Iran retaliated. It is that the balance of deterrence has shifted from underground nuclear facilities to a narrow maritime chokepoint through which a major share of the world’s energy trade must pass. The latest escalation followed US strikes on Iranian targets after attacks on commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz. AP reported that President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was “o...

The confrontation between the United States and Iran has entered a more dangerous phase after a fresh exchange of strikes around the Strait of Hormuz, raising fears that a fragile interim understanding between the two sides may be collapsing. The latest escalation began after Washington accused Iran of attacking commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy corridors. The United States responded with a new wave of military strikes on Iranian targets, which US officials described as an effort to protect freedom of navigation and keep the waterway open to international shipping, Reuters reported. Iran then retaliated by targeting US-linked military sites in Gulf Arab states, including Bahrain and Kuwait. Iranian state-linked reports said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck dozens of US military installations, including facilities around the US Fifth Fleet area in Bahrain and bases in Kuwait. Mehr News said the IRGC claimed to have hit 85 ...

As NATO leaders wrapped up their 36th summit in Ankara this week, Russian state and state-aligned media offered a portrait of an alliance simultaneously hardening its posture toward Moscow and fraying at the seams — a dual narrative that dominated Russian coverage over the past 24 hours. A "Long-Term Threat" Designation Takes Center Stage The most-cited element of Russian coverage was the summit's draft final declaration, which multiple Russian outlets — relaying reporting from Reuters and Euronews — noted would formally label Russia a "long-term threat" to Euro-Atlantic security and stability, alongside a reaffirmation of Article 5 collective-defense commitments. A widely circulated piece carried by Rambler News described the declaration as fixing new "rules of the game" for decades to come, tying the Russia designation to a parallel pledge of €70 billion in defense assistance to Ukraine for 2026, with a comparable commitment implied for 2027. InoSMI,...

The NATO summit held in Ankara on July 7-8 marks the formal launch of what alliance officials are calling "NATO 3.0" — but according to prominent Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin, this label is really shorthand for the opening of a second Cold War, one in which democratic backsliding in member states is treated as a secondary concern. Writing in the Yetkin Report on July 7, Murat Yetkin argues that viewed through this lens, the ongoing legal cases against Turkey's main opposition CHP party and Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu no longer appear contradictory to Turkey's NATO role. He notes that President Trump's renewed warnings about "the communist threat" during America's 250th anniversary speech fit the same framework, as does NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's own choice to walk hand-in-hand with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara despite raising press-freedom concerns. Strategic and military imperatives, Yetkin writes, tend to override righ...

The fragile US-Iran ceasefire faced its sharpest test in weeks overnight, as American forces struck dozens of Iranian military sites and Tehran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on US installations in Bahrain and Kuwait — all unfolding against the backdrop of the funeral procession for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Below, a five-question breakdown of what happened, what's still unfolding, and what it means. What happened? US Central Command launched a wave of strikes on Iranian air defenses, radar sites and anti-ship missile positions, along with more than 60 small boats operated by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Washington said the operation was retaliation for Iranian attacks a day earlier on three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, among them a Qatari LNG carrier and a Saudi-flagged tanker. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hit back, striking what it described as 85 US military installations in Bahrain and Kuwait — including the US Fifth...