The Levant Files

  Tensions between Washington and Tehran have reached a perilous new height as both sides trade threats of military confrontation while maintaining fragile diplomatic channels, with regional powers scrambling to prevent a conflict that could engulf the Middle East. President Donald Trump has dispatched what he described as an “armada” to the region, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group and F-35 fighter jets, while insisting that Iran is negotiating with the United States under a conveyed deadline. However, according to the Iran International, Iranian leaders maintain that talks cannot be forced through threats, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning that any American war would not remain confined to Iran but would likely escalate into a broader regional conflict. US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker acknowledged that Trump is showing patience but warned it will not last indefinitely, emphasizing that the military buildup serves as both deterrent an...

  As the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group steams toward the Persian Gulf and Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces conduct live-fire exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, an intensive backchannel diplomatic effort led by Turkey, Qatar, and Oman is racing to prevent a military confrontation between Washington and Tehran. With both nations maintaining hardened public positions—President Trump declaring that "very big powerful ships" are en route while Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns of "regional war" should the US attack—regional mediators are working to compress an apparently intractable conflict into a narrow, negotiable framework that both sides can claim as victory. The New Diplomatic Architecture The current mediation represents the most complex multilateral coordination in the Middle East since the Gaza ceasefire negotiations of 2024-2025, involving overlapping channels rather than a single track. Turkey has emerged as the primary facilitator, with President Rece...

Nournews analysis presents chilling calculus: One blocked strait, instant market meltdown, and a worldwide depression that would dwarf 2008 In what can be interpreted as a brazen act of economic brinkmanship, a major Iranian state-affiliated outlet has issued a blood-chilling warning to the United States and its allies: Attack Iran, and you will unleash a financial tsunami that will drown the global economy in weeks. The analysis, published by Nournews—a media outlet with close ties to Iran's Supreme National Security Council—eschews military threats for something far more terrifying to Western capitals: the specter of complete economic annihilation. The message is clear, stark, and intentionally alarming: The Strait of Hormuz is not Iran's vulnerability; it is the Western world's economic jugular, and Tehran is reminding Washington that it knows exactly where to squeeze. The Arithmetic of Armageddon The numbers presented in the analysis read like a doomsday prophecy for en...