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.

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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

Christians make strong showing in Egyptian Parliament

More Christian candidates are running in this year’s parliamentary elections in Egypt.

A picture taken on February 5, 2019, shows a general view of the damaged buildings in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. - For decades in the mountainous region of Sinjar in Iraq's diverse north, the lives of many revolved around their lands, but now many Sunni Arab farmers are estranged from their fields out of fear of reprisal attacks. The region, which borders Syria is home to an array of communities -- Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and Yazidis -- which formed a patchwork that was ripped apart when the

Turkey targets Yazidi militia in Iraq over PKK links

The Sinjar Resistance Units have been targeted by Turkish forces in Iraq for its connection with the Kurdistan Workers Party.

Syriac manuscripts recovered from suspected Islamic State fighter in Mosul

Stolen manuscripts resurface as Iraqi security forces engage Islamic State cells, but safety concerns for minority communities still loom large.

US President Donald Trump speaks on Covid-19 testing in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC on September 28, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump mum on refugee admissions despite pleas from Congress

The administration has drastically reduced the number of refugees resettled annually in the United States.

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Iraqi Jews want to regain their citizenship

As the region witnesses a wave of normalization with Israel, Iraqi Jews demand restoration of their citizenship.

Turkey’s tilt toward Pakistan provokes India’s ire

An Indian intelligence reports sees Turkey as becoming a hub for anti-India activities second only to Pakistan.

Erdogan converts another historic church into a mosque

The centuries-old Chora church, which has served as a museum since 1945, will soon be open to Muslim worship.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - AUGUST 28: New Jewish immigrants walking down the airplane during a welcoming ceremony after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia, on August 28, 2013 at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. Over 400 Ethiopian Jews arrived on the flight to Tel Aviv, the last of a series of monthly flights that were part of Operation Dove's Wings, an Israeli government initiative to bring to Israel the remainder of the Falash Mura, members of the Ethiopian Jewish community whose ancestors converted to C

Israeli-Ethiopian community divided on bringing 8,000 Falash Mura

Minister of Immigration and Absorption Pnina Tamano-Shata presented last week a plan to bring to Israel 8,000 Falash Mura from Ethiopia by the end of 2022.

Nubian Egyptian women sell souvenirs in the village of Gharb Suhail near Aswan in Upper Egypt, some 920 kilometres south of the capital Cairo, on February 5, 2020. - The Nubian language, according to locals, is unpractised by many in the generation born decades after their mass eviction from their ancestral lands to make way for the construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile in the 1960s. Built under Egypt's late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, the colossal project aimed to harness the Nile's annual flood

Egypt shows interest in Nubian community after years of marginalization

The marginalized Nubian community is back at the forefront in Egypt with a boat race festival to preserve Nubian heritage, held for a second time in Aswan governorate.

A general view shows the terraced gardens and the golden Shrine of Bab following renovation works at the Bahai World Center, in the Israeli port city of Haifa, on April 12, 2011. The restoration work in the Bahai Faith second holiest site began in 2008 and was carried out by volunteers from Mongolia, China, Ecuador, Kenya, Germany, Canada, U.S, South Africa, Vanuatu, India and New Zealand . The gardens, tucked into the steep slopes of mount Carmel, are designed in nine concentric circles around the shrine w

The lesser of two evils: Yemen’s Bahais from prison into exile

Shortly after their release, six members of the Bahai community in Yemen were sent into exile, in a stark example of the political climate in this war-ravaged country.

Intel: Syria to build Hagia Sophia replica with Russian backing

With support from Russian officials and the Orthodox Church, Syria will begin construction on a small-scale replica of the Hagia Sophia that will serve as an Orthodox cathedral.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - JULY 24: In this handout picture released by the Turkish Presidential press office, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and invited guests attend Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque during the buildings first official prayers after being reconverted into a mosque on July, 24, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Handout/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Getty Images)

Istanbul's Hagia Sophia holds first Friday prayers since reconversion to mosque

Is Turkey's reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque a politically expedient decision or part of Turkey’s growing global assertiveness?