If Iran is responsible for the drone attack on an oil tanker managed by an Israeli company, an attempted attack on a Saudi merchant vessel, and the hijacking of a tanker operated by a UAE company, then the question is why would it launch attacks at t...

Iran inaugurated an oil pipeline that circumvents the Strait of Hormuz on 22 July. Assuming there is ultimately progress on negotiations with the US over the nuclear deal, this modestly reduces the risk to long-term global oil supply and, from an Ira...

OPEC has pulled an eleventh-hour rabbit out of the hat many times before, and it will need to do so again to bring the UAE back into the fold this time. The UAE is the fourth-largest producer in OPEC+ and wants its quota to reflect the over 20% capac...

Hardline Ebrahim Raisi has won the 18 June Iran presidential election, with 62% of votes. Very low turnout of 48% is an indication of popular disenchantment with the political system. This is surely an indication of popular disenchantment with a poli...

The Iran Presidential election is due on 18th June. Raisi was appointed Chief Justice by Khamenei in March 2019 and is the leading presidential candidate in the opinion polls, with a reputation as a hardline cleric. Turnout for the 2019 parliamentary...

Militaries generally took a bigger share of budgets in 2020 in aggregate globally, as well as in most emerging markets, and that was despite the Covid-19 emergency response. Middle East: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi. Given the...