The Levant Files

Tensions between the United States and Iran intensified over the past day as fresh maritime incidents in the Gulf coincided with renewed diplomatic pressure over a possible ceasefire or broader agreement. Reports from major international outlets indicate that Washington is waiting for Tehran’s response to a proposal aimed at ending the conflict, while military activity in the Strait of Hormuz has raised fears of further escalation. According to recent coverage, the United States struck or disabled Iranian-linked tankers after what Washington described as threats to American interests at sea. The latest incidents have further strained shipping routes in one of the world’s most sensitive energy corridors, prompting concern over possible disruptions to global trade. Reuters reported that Iran is still reviewing the US proposal, while American officials have pushed for a swift answer. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tehran should respond quickly, underscoring the urgency of the diploma...

A far‑right party once seen as a fringe offshoot of Greece’s neo‑Nazi Golden Dawn is now on course to become the third‑largest force in Cyprus’ parliament, in a shift that could redraw the island’s political map after the 24 May elections. Poll trend data compiled by PolitPro put the National Popular Front (ELAM) at 13.8% – nearly double its 2021 share – and projects nine seats in the 56‑member House of Representatives, behind only the traditional giants DISY and AKEL. The same model foresees a seven‑party chamber in which DISY and AKEL take 14 seats each, ELAM nine, Odysseas Michaelides’ ALMA six, Fidias Panayiotou’s Direct Democracy (Amesi Dimokratía) five, DIKO six, and Volt two. A separate Alpha–Rai poll, reported by Cyprus Mail, similarly forecasts ELAM in third place with nine MPs, more than doubling the four it secured in 2021, while DIKO slumps to its worst result in the party’s 50‑year history. Recent polling underlines just how narrow the race has become at the top – and how ...

Alexis Tsipras, the former Greek prime minister whose dramatic rise and fall reshaped the country’s political landscape, is orchestrating a carefully calibrated comeback aimed at reassembling the fragmented Greek left and challenging the dominance of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. After a self‑imposed exit from frontline politics following a crushing 2023 defeat, Tsipras is now signaling a return not via SYRIZA but through a new, Tsipras‑centered project that could redefine the opposition for the next national or European election. Tsipras’s withdrawal from active politics began in June 2023, when he resigned as leader of SYRIZA and stepped down from parliament after the party pulled in only about 17.8 percent of the vote, while New Democracy swept to a strong majority of around 40.5 percent. That result marked the end of his 15‑year leadership of the once‑radical left party and deepened doubts about his political future. For much of late 2023 and 2024, he kept a low profile, focu...

Turkey’s inflation problem worsened in April, with consumer prices rising 4.2 percent from the previous month and 32.4 percent from a year earlier, reinforcing concerns that price pressures remain deeply entrenched despite the government’s economic stabilization efforts. The latest figures suggest that the recent regional war and its impact on energy costs are only part of the story. Writing for the YetkinReport, economist Fatih Özatay argues that inflation in Turkey has shown unusual rigidity for months, with the annual rate moving in a narrow band between 30.65 percent and 33.5 percent since July 2025 instead of following a clear downward trend. That pattern has raised doubts about official forecasts for the end of 2026, which Özatay says now look too low to remain credible unless they are revised. He notes that even core inflation indicators, which exclude volatile categories such as energy and food, stayed elevated in April at 3.4 percent and 3.5 percent, indicating that underlying...

US Vice President JD Vance met Qatar’s prime minister on Friday for talks that included negotiations involving the Islamic Republic, highlighting Doha’s continued role as a key intermediary in the crisis. The meeting came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was awaiting Tehran’s response to a proposed peace plan and indicated that a serious reply could open the door to real negotiations. Even as diplomacy moved forward, the military picture remained fragile. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, citing an unnamed military source, said clashes between Iranian and US forces in the Persian Gulf had stopped for now after an exchange of fire. The same source warned that any renewed US move into the Gulf or interference with Iranian vessels could trigger another Iranian response, suggesting the pause may be temporary rather than durable. The threat of escalation was reinforced by new statements over maritime pressure and strategic waterways. Lawmaker Ali Khazarian said future US effort...

An Iranian media outlet has portrayed recent debate in Washington as evidence that information tied to Iran-related diplomacy is being turned into a tool for financial gain inside the United States. In a report published by Iran’s Nour News, the outlet argues that news about negotiations involving Iran has become part of a broader pattern in which political power, privileged information and private profit increasingly overlap in U.S. politics. According to Nour News, the issue was sharpened by recent remarks from former U.S. President Barack Obama, who the Iranian outlet said warned against the use of presidential authority for personal financial benefit. The report says Obama stressed that a president should not be able to direct the attorney general for private purposes or simultaneously pursue business dealings involving foreign governments. Nour News presented those remarks as part of a broader warning about what it described as the dangerous intersection of political power and fin...

Protesters gathered outside the Justice Palace in al-Hasakah on Thursday after Kurdish was removed from the building’s identification sign, which was replaced with one displaying only Arabic and English, according to Enab Baladi. Videos circulated online showed demonstrators taking down the newly installed sign from the courthouse facade and smashing it while chanting slogans against what they described as an attack on the Kurdish language, Enab Baladi reported. The protest came as Syrian government officials and the Syrian Democratic Forces were moving ahead with arrangements to reopen the Justice Palace, part of broader understandings between the two sides over unresolved judicial and security files in northeastern Syria. Demonstrators said the removal of Kurdish from the sign amounted to a violation of the cultural and national rights of Kurds and argued that the language is an essential part of Kurdish identity. A statement read outside the building said any infringement on the Kur...

Syrian authorities on Thursday removed a bilingual Kurdish-Arabic billboard from the Justice Palace in Hasaka, the largest city in Syria’s Kurdish-majority northeast, replacing it with signage in English and Arabic only. The move ignited immediate public fury. Locals gathered outside the building chanting “Kurdistan” before forcibly tearing down the newly installed sign, an act of defiance underscoring how language rights remain a volatile fault line despite formal legal protections. The exclusion of Kurdish directly contradicts Presidential Decree No. 13 of 2026, signed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa on January 16. That decree recognized Kurdish as a national language alongside Arabic for the first time in Syrian legal history. It also restored citizenship to Syrian Kurds stripped in the notorious 1962 Hasaka census, authorized Kurdish-language instruction in schools with sizable Kurdish populations, designated Nowruz as a paid national holiday, and explicitly prohibited ethnic or lingu...

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has launched a new wave of drone strikes against Kurdish opposition bases in the Kurdistan Region, intensifying a campaign of cross-border attacks that has persisted despite a fragile ceasefire between Tehran and Washington. The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) reported that three drones struck the Zewi Aspi base in Koya district at 23:10 local time on Wednesday, hours after two separate drones hit a residential camp housing the families of party members at Girde Chal near Erbil. The dual assault marked the second attack on PDKI bases in a single day, underscoring Tehran's relentless targeting of exiled Kurdish groups even as U.S. officials signal progress toward a broader diplomatic understanding with Iran. The latest strikes are part of a disturbing pattern that has unfolded since late February, when the United States and Israel launched a six-week military campaign against Iranian nuclear and military facilities. Accor...