The Levant Files

Iran's state-linked Mehr News Agency has published a striking opinion piece arguing that Tehran's participation in both the 2026 Hajj pilgrimage and the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States constitutes a strategic necessity — framing athletic competition and religious observance alike as extensions of Iran's military and ideological resistance. The article, written in the ideological register characteristic of Mehr's state-directed editorial line, claims that Iran recently emerged victorious from a "forty-day war" against what it describes as an "illegal and oppressive" military assault by the United States and Israel — an assertion that cannot be independently verified and reflects the Iranian government's own contested narrative. Against this backdrop, the agency argues that boycotting either event would amount to self-imposed isolation, handing adversaries a propaganda victory. "Boycotting the World Cup means surrendering the platform...

Two months after the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28, the front pages of Iranian newspapers on Monday converge on a single, uneasy truth: the war has not ended, but nobody wants it to resume. The widely-read daily Hamshahri captured the prevailing mood with a phrase that has become the editorial shorthand of the moment — "gunpowder diplomacy, a fragile balance between deterrence and war." Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is in St. Petersburg for talks with Vladimir Putin, peace negotiations with Washington are stalled, the Strait of Hormuz remains a chokepoint reshaping the global economy, and the Iranian rial has collapsed to 1.32 million per dollar. Beneath the official messaging of defiance and unity, Iran's newspapers reveal a country navigating acute economic pain, leadership questions, and a diplomatic standoff in which every move is calculated in terms of pressure, leverage, and the risk of miscalculation. Diplomacy In Motion: ...

Mali's military rulers were plunged into their gravest security crisis in years on Sunday after a weekend of coordinated nationwide attacks by jihadist fighters and Tuareg separatists killed the country's defence minister and reportedly handed a strategic northern city to rebels. Defence Minister Sadio Camara, a senior member of the ruling junta and seen by many as a potential future leader, was killed Saturday by a car bomb planted outside his home in Kati, a military stronghold roughly 15 kilometres north of the capital Bamako. His second wife and two of his grandchildren also died in the blast, according to relatives. The attack is believed to have been carried out by the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM). The offensive, which began at dawn Saturday, was synchronised between JNIM and the Tuareg-dominated Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). Targets included the Kati base, Bamako's international airport, and towns across central and northern Mali...

Iranian state-affiliated media is projecting a posture of open defiance toward Washington, with senior commanders, lawmakers, and intelligence officials quoted as vowing to "forcefully break" what Iranian sources call an American "naval blockade" of Iran's ports and warning the United States that "this is not Venezuela." The framing, carried across Mehr News Agency, Tasnim News Agency, and Press TV, casts the Strait of Hormuz as sovereign Iranian territory and rejects any US role in setting its rules. The following account is based entirely on Iranian sources and could not be independently verified. The sharpest formulation came from Brigadier General Mohammad-Jafar Asadi, deputy for inspection at the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, in remarks carried by Mehr News Agency. Asadi was quoted as declaring that "Americans have no right to express opinions about the Strait of Hormuz," describing the Persian Gulf as a matter solely for Iran a...

Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced Sunday that he will postpone any decision on whether to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a pardon in his ongoing criminal corruption cases, urging that mediation efforts between Netanyahu and the state be fully "exhausted" before any presidential action is taken. According to Haaretz, Herzog stated that a negotiated agreement between Netanyahu and the state represents the "proper and correct solution," and called on all parties to first pursue "a process that could lead to the formulation of a settlement between the parties, outside the court." He added that "efforts to reach such an agreement are an essential part of attempting to bring the sides to a consensus." The New York Times had first reported on Saturday that Herzog did not plan to issue a ruling imminently, citing two senior Israeli officials familiar with the matter. Herzog's Sunday statement appeared to confirm that assessment. Netan...

Mali is taking stock after one of the boldest insurgent operations against the country in more than a decade, with al-Qaeda–linked jihadists and Tuareg separatists claiming joint responsibility for coordinated dawn attacks that struck Bamako and at least four other cities on Saturday. The army said overnight it had repelled the assault and killed "several hundred" attackers, with sweep operations under way in Bamako, Kati and elsewhere. The whereabouts of junta leader Gen. Assimi Goïta remained unknown into Sunday, and his government had yet to appear publicly in any sustained way. The strikes began shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday with explosions and sustained gunfire near the main military base at Kati, where Goïta lives. Witnesses said a vehicle bomb destroyed most of the home of Defence Minister Gen. Sadio Camara; his entourage said he was unhurt. Gunfire also erupted around Bamako's Modibo Keïta International Airport, forcing flight cancellations and the closure of Air...

Iran's front pages on Sunday presented the dramatic collapse of the latest round of Pakistan-brokered diplomacy. President Donald Trump, who had unilaterally extended the ceasefire with Iran just days earlier, abruptly canceled the planned trip by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad at the last minute, hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had already departed Pakistan. Tabnak reported Trump's remarks that he told his team, "We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want" — a statement Iranian commentators widely read as an attempt to project leverage while talks stall. According to Tasnim News Agency, the semi-official outlet close to the IRGC emphasized that there were "no negotiations with the Americans on the agenda" during Araghchi's Islamabad visit, characterizing the trip as consultations with Pakistani mediators on Iran's own terms rather than any concession to direct US-Iranian talks. Araghchi hims...

In remarks broadcast by Iranian state media, President Masoud Pezeshkian declared on Saturday that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not participate in any negotiations conducted under conditions of pressure, threats, or naval blockade, drawing a sharp contrast between Washington's stated desire for diplomacy and what Tehran characterises as continued acts of hostility, the Iranian Press Tv reported.  Pezeshkian made the remarks during a telephone conversation with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government has assumed a mediating role between Tehran and Washington in recent weeks. Pakistan hosted the first round of indirect talks between Iranian and American delegations in its capital, Islamabad, earlier this month. According to the Iranian president, the United States' simultaneous application of pressure tactics and its professed willingness to engage in a diplomatic process are fundamentally contradictory. "The contradiction has increased the level of mi...

In its sharpest warning yet to Washington, Iran's central military command declared on Saturday that the continued American naval "piracy, blockade, and banditry" in the region will be met with a decisive response from the Iranian armed forces, the latest in a wave of escalating messages from Tehran cautioning the United States against further provocation. "If the aggressive US military continues its blockade, piracy, and maritime banditry in the region, they can be certain that they will face the reaction of Iran's powerful armed forces," the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement, stressing that Iran's military possesses "greater strength and readiness" than before to defend the country's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national interests. The headquarters reminded Washington that parts of the US military had already experienced Iran's offensive power during the latest US-Israeli aggression against Iran, whi...