The Levant Files

Iran said on Sunday evening that its air defences had destroyed an advanced surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz, adding an operational dimension to the rapidly escalating threats between Tehran and Washington. According to the Iranian army’s public-relations office, as cited by Khabar Online, an “Orbiter” reconnaissance drone was detected and struck at approximately 6:30 p.m. Iranian time. The army said domestically produced air-defence systems operating within Iran’s integrated defence network intercepted the aircraft over the strategically important waterway. Tehran did not identify the drone’s operator or immediately release independently verifiable photographs or footage of the wreckage. Neither Washington nor Israel had confirmed losing an aircraft by publication time. The Iranian account must therefore be treated as an official but presently uncorroborated claim. The reported interception followed an unusually severe warning from Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headqu...

  Iran has conveyed conditions for ending the war with the United States through mediators, security chief Mohsen Rezaei told Al Jazeera on Saturday. Tehran wants fighting to stop across all fronts, frozen Iranian funds released and the naval blockade lifted, according to Reuters’ report of the interview . His remarks combined a diplomatic opening with warnings that Iran remains prepared for further conflict. 1. What exactly is Iran demanding? Rezaei identified three core requirements: an end to the war on every front, access to Iran’s frozen assets and termination of the US naval blockade. Reuters reported that these were conditions conveyed to mediators for renewed negotiations aimed at ending the conflict. The published account does not specify the amount of money involved, a timetable for lifting the blockade or how a halt to fighting would be enforced. It therefore establishes Tehran’s publicly stated demands, but leaves important implementation questions unanswered.  2....

Iran is closely monitoring developments across neighboring countries, with particular attention focused on Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Syria, Iranian sources familiar with Tehran’s regional security assessments told The Levant Files. The sources said the Islamic Republic is increasingly concerned that its neighbors could provide the United States and Israel with military, logistical or intelligence opportunities that might be used against Iranian territory. Although Tehran continues to convey many of its concerns through diplomatic and security channels, the sources warned that further hostile activity originating from neighboring states could prompt a severe response. Iranian frustration appears particularly pronounced toward Azerbaijan, whose expanding relations and cooperation with Washington and Israel are being scrutinised closely in Tehran. “This is a situation that we constantly monitor,” one source said. “We have already delivered the necessary precautionar...

Tehran on Monday firmly denied that it is engaged in direct negotiations with the United States, even as diplomatic efforts to defuse the standoff between the two countries continued through regional intermediaries. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters in Tehran that "there are currently no negotiations with the United States," pushing back against suggestions from Washington that a bilateral dialogue was underway. He added that Iran's engagement was instead focused on a separate channel: talks with Oman concerning the management of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. That Oman-mediated track appears to be advancing quickly. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told cabinet members on Sunday that "negotiations with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz are in their final stages" and "on the way to being finalized," according to Iran's state news agency IRNA. Araghchi's remarks came just after President Trum...

Bölge Uçurumun Kıyısından Nasıl Döndü? ABD büyükelçiliklerinin güvenlik uyarılarından Suudi Arabistan’ın devreye girmesine, İran’ın tehditlerinden Donald Trump’ın son anda verdiği mesaja kadar 1-2 Ağustos gecesi Levant ve Basra Körfezi’ni büyük bir bölgesel çatışmanın eşiğine getirdi. Ancak son anda diplomasiye dar da olsa bir alan açıldı. Tehlike henüz geçmiş değil. Washington’ın saldırıları durdurma kararı şartlara bağlı, Hürmüz Boğazı krizin merkezindeki yerini koruyor ve bölge başkentlerinde alarm durumu sürüyor.  Bölge Alarm Durumuna Geçti 1 Ağustos Cumartesi günü ABD’nin Orta Doğu’daki büyükelçilikleri, alışılmışın dışında kapsamlı güvenlik uyarıları yayımladı. Açıklamalarda, Amerikalı vatandaşlar “öngörülemeyen bir tırmanış” ihtimaline karşı uyarılarak bölgeden ayrılmayı değerlendirmeleri istendi. Bahreyn, Irak, İsrail, Ürdün, Kuveyt, Lübnan, Umman, Katar, Suudi Arabistan ve Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri’ni kapsayan uyarılar, Levant’tan Basra Körfezi’ne uzanan geniş coğrafyada A...

From the warning lights of US embassies to Saudi intervention, Iranian threats and a last-minute message from Donald Trump, the night of 1–2 August pushed the Levant and Gulf toward a major regional confrontation—then abruptly opened a narrow diplomatic exit. The danger has not passed: Washington’s strike pause is conditional, the Strait of Hormuz remains central to the dispute, and the region’s capitals remain on alert. The Region Braces On Saturday, 1 August, US embassies across the Middle East issued unusually broad security alerts, warning American citizens of possible “unforeseen escalation” and urging them to consider leaving the region. The notices covered Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—an arc stretching from the Levant to the Gulf and reflecting fears that the next US-Iran confrontation would not remain contained. The guidance was practical but stark: prepare for cancelled flights and sudden airspace restri...

The likelihood of direct Israeli involvement in the escalating U.S.-Iran confrontation is growing, as President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran's newly revealed "Mount Pickaxe" nuclear facility "with great force," according to a report by YNET. Speaking during a historic White House meeting with Lebanese President George Aoun, Trump declared: "We will definitely attack the new site they are talking about, Mount Pickaxe. The whole story is about nuclear weapons, and now they may be trying to re-establish a site. We will hit that site too. Any site where they even think about nuclear activity, we will hit with very great force," YNET reported. The threat carries heightened significance following reports that Iran has transferred thousands of enrichment centrifuges — and possibly uranium — to the Mount Pickaxe facility. Israeli officials assess that if Trump follows through on expanding the war to target the site, the conflict would no longer remai...

The war between the United States and Iran entered its tenth consecutive night of American strikes on Tuesday, with both sides expanding the geographic scope of their attacks beyond the Strait of Hormuz into a wider arc spanning the Gulf, Jordan and Iraq. US Central Command confirmed it carried out a new wave of strikes against Iran beginning at 4 p.m. ET on Monday, targeting Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone launch sites intended to reduce Iran's ability to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Explosions were reported across nine locations — Abdanan, Bandar Abbas, Bandar Lengeh, Bushehr, Chabahar, Qeshm Island, Sirik, Shiraz and Konarak — marking a notable inland extension of the campaign, with Shiraz among the newly hit cities. CENTCOM said the naval blockade imposed on Iranian ports since mid-July had already redirected seven commercial vessels and disabled one, while noting th...

Every night for the past week, the world's attention has followed the same script: American strikes on Iranian coastal and transport targets, Iranian missiles fired back at Gulf states, oil prices twitching, the Strait of Hormuz named again and again as the conflict's central prize. But buried inside the hourly bulletins of the past 24 hours is a story that deserves to be read on its own terms, not as a bullet point in a live blog — because it may prove more dangerous, in the long run, than any single round of missiles. Water has become a battlefield. And both sides are now fighting on it, in the open, without pretense. What happened in the last 12 hours In the early hours of Saturday, 18 July, U.S. Central Command confirmed a seventh consecutive night of strikes on Iranian territory, hitting what it described as surveillance sites, military logistics, underground weapons storage and maritime capabilities along the coast facing the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state television rep...

The Middle East convulsed once more overnight as the United States pounded Iranian territory for a sixth consecutive night, tearing through bridges, railways, power stations and coastal radar installations in a campaign that has now killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 400 since a fragile truce collapsed. In return, Tehran unleashed a sweeping wave of retaliation across five Gulf states — a spasm of missiles and drones that has turned the Strait of Hormuz, and the wider waterways around it, into one of the most dangerous chokepoints on Earth. What began seven days ago as a rekindling of hostilities has, by Friday, hardened into something far graver: a widening war that increasingly resembles regional conflagration rather than contained confrontation. The ceasefire memorandum signed in Switzerland weeks ago now lies in tatters, its provisions abandoned amid a relentless cycle of strike and counterstrike that shows no sign of slowing. Sixth Night, Same Fury US Central Co...

     Qatari and Pakistani mediators work to bring Washington and Tehran back to the table after a wave of strikes and a tanker attack in the Strait of Hormuz threaten to unravel the June 17 memorandum of understanding. Qatar has stepped up its mediation between the United States and Iran this week, working alongside Pakistan to prevent the collapse of a fragile ceasefire that has been tested by fresh military strikes, an attack on a Qatari-linked tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, and the conclusion of week-long funeral processions for slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Regional sources say Doha and Islamabad are working behind the scenes to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table after the truce reached under the June 17 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) showed signs of unravelling, with both Washington and Tehran trading blame over renewed strikes in recent days. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul...