Ethnic/Religious Minorities

A police speed boat patrols the port as oil tankers and high speed crafts sit anchored at Muscat Anchorage near the Strait of Hormuz on March 30, 2026 in Muscat, Oman.

Analysis

Hostage to Hormuz, can Gulf rewire future energy flows to bypass Iran’s chokepoint?

As the US-Israel-Iran war disrupts around 20% of global oil supply, experts point to opportunities and challenges facing a renewed push to develop alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

A Hezbollah flag is seen in a destroyed car after an Israeli airstrike in Nabi Chit (Al-Nabi Shayth), Lebanon, on March 26, 2026. In the first week of March, the Israeli army carried out an unsuccessful nighttime commando operation there to recover the remains of Ron Arad, a pilot missing since 1986, triggering airstrikes and destruction in the area that forced residents to flee their homes. (Photo by Fabio Bucciarelli / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Displacement and dissent: Hezbollah’s war with Israel splits Lebanon’s Shiites

The renewed Israel war against Hezbollah in Lebanon has divided the Shiite community, with some still backing the group as resistance against Israel’s expansionist vision and others refusing to pay the price of foreign conflicts.

Karim Safieddine

By Karim Safieddine

In Beirut, reporting on politics

Displaced families set up tents along Beirut's waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 10, 2026, after fleeing recent Israel-Hezbollah hostilities.

Lebanon scrambles to contain tensions over displacement as Israel ups threats

Displaced Shiites are facing growing resentment from host communities in areas outside of Hezbollah’s control in Lebanon amid uncertainty over their return to southern Lebanon, where Israeli attacks and advances signal a potential ground invasion.

Rabbi Daniel Walker and King Charles III view floral tributes during a visit to Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on Oct. 20, 2025, in Manchester, England.

UK, Netherlands probe Iran links to plots targeting Jewish sites: What to know

British authorities said two men had spied on the Jewish community in London for Iran, and synagogues were recently targeted in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Latest News

Analysis

Turkey cautious but unfazed by US plan to mobilize Iranian Kurds against regime

A group of Peshmergas of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) walks during military training near one of their bases in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, on March 1, 2025.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Which 6 Kurdish groups could join the war in Iran?

A picture from the formation of the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan on Feb. 22, 2026.

Amid chatter of local uprisings, eyes turn to Iran's minorities: What to know

Osama Al Maqdoni / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Syria begins prisoner exchange with Druze militia in south: What to know

Suwayda

A Druze woman casts her ballot in the northern village of Maghar, Israel, Jan. 22, 2013.

Mixed feelings in Israel over first Druze city

Residents of Maghar would have preferred Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to announce it as a new Arab city, and not as the first Druze city in Israel.

Egypt Christian

Egypt churches play matchmaker as Christians' marriages decline

Egypt's churches are trying to help their unmarried male and female members tie the knot, but the move is making some people angry.

Muslims attend a ritual ceremony to commemorate the Mawlid of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, outside Al-Hussein Mosque, Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 16, 2018.

Egypt celebrates Prophet's birthday with Sufi music stars

Egypt held the first Mawlid festival with Sufi chanting performances to highlight the main core of Sufism, which is combining all religions and urges people to accept each other, whatever their religion is.

Taras Press

Children's books share Sudan's endangered Nobiin with new readers

Three Nubian-Sudanese writers have published children's books written in the Nobiin language and using the Old Nubian script.

Israeli Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana arrives for a photo at the president's residence during a ceremony for the new coalition government, Jerusalem, June 14, 2021.

Israeli minister promotes controversial reform on conversion into Judaism

Minister of Religious Affairs Matan Kahana is determined to break the monopoly of ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate over conversions into Judaism.

An Ethiopian Orthodox priest wafts incense during a prayer inside Bole Medhanialem church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on June 20, 2021.

Egypt strengthens influence in Africa through church

The Egyptian government is working through the Egyptian Orthodox Church in Africa, especially in the Nile Basin countries, as part of a soft power strategy to boost its influence in light of the crisis over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images

Three Israeli ministers visit Emirates on sidelines of Dubai expo

Three Israeli ministers are using the opportunity of the 2020 Dubai Expo to visit the country and meet with their Emirati counterparts.

This picture shows the Mughrabi ramp, leading from the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound that includes the Dome of the Rock Mosque (background) in Jerusalem's Old City, on Sept. 10, 2021.

Jewish Israelis flock to Temple Mount in greater numbers

Despite warnings from some rabbis that visits are forbidden, more Jewish Israelis are ascending the Temple Mount than ever.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during the Baghdad conference in the Iraqi capital on Aug. 28, 2021.

Sisi statements spark debate about status for Egyptian atheists

The Egyptian president's remarks on human rights have drawn attention to freedom of belief for the nonreligious.

Iraqi Assyrian Christians attend a ceremony with the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church of the East to elect a new Catholicos-patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, at Saint Youhanna church in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq on Sept. 18, 2015.

LISTEN: Assyrian Church of the East elects new patriarch

The new leader of the historic church must now navigate the unique political and spiritual challenges facing his shrinking community in Iraq and its worldwide diaspora.

US Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I light candles during Biden's visit to the Church of St. George on Nov. 23, 2014 in Istanbul.

Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew I set to meet Biden at White House

The patriarch will also meet Ankara's US ambassador while in Washington.

A religious Jewish yeshiva (seminary) student stands outside the local army draft office May 11, 2006 at Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv in central Israel.

Bennett’s government advances ultra-Orthodox public school system

The new Israeli government focuses efforts on pushing forward and expanding an ultra-Orthodox public school system.