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

Intel: Houthis continue to detain Baha’i prisoners despite promise to release them

The political head of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Mehdi al-Mashat, vowed to release six Baha’i prisoners during a lengthy televised address in March. Two months later, multiple sources have confirmed to Al-Monitor that the Yemeni rebels have failed to follow through and that all six prisoners remain behind bars.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - MAY 18: Hagia Sophia and its surroundings remain empty during the third day of the 4-day coronavirus restrictions imposed to stem the novel COVID-19 pandemic in Istanbul, Turkey on May 18, 2020. (Photo by Erhan Sevenler/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Ankara unfolds Hagia Sophia card against COVID-19 crisis

Erdogan’s government has signaled it could consider turning the Hagia Sophia Museum into a mosque as part of religious messages aimed at keeping its voter base intact under the strain of economic turmoil, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Intel: Trump’s religious freedom envoy ‘pleased’ with Iran’s release of Bahai’s

President Donald Trump’s envoy for international religious freedom welcomed the release of some Baha’i political prisoners by Iran and by Yemen’s Houthi rebels while also noting concerns about Iran's treatment of the religious group.

Refugees from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, walk past tents at Nowruz refugee camp in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, August 17, 2014. Proclaiming a caliphate straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State militants have swept across northern Iraq, pushing back Kurdish regional forces and driving tens of thousands of Christians and members of the Yazidi religious minority from their homes. Picture taken August 17, 2014. REUTERS/Rodi Said (SYRIA - Tags: POLIT

Intel: US watchdog calls on State Department to add Syria to list of religious freedom violators

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should designate Syria as one of the world’s worst religious freedom offenders and put Iraq, Turkey and Egypt on a special watch list, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended in its annual report.

Syriacs mark Easter in Turkey amid safety fears

The indictment of a monk on terrorism charges and the mysterious death of an elderly woman has shaken one of the world’s oldest Christian communities as it celebrates Easter during the coronavirus pandemic.

Israeli Arabs left to rely on 'self-help' for coronavirus testing

The discrepancy in the Israel government's approach to coronavirus testing in Jewish and Arab communities has put the burden on Arab Knesset members and local Arab authorities to organize to try to keep infections under control in Arab towns and villages.

Members of the Baha'i faith hold flowers as they demonstrate outside a state security court during a hearing in the case of a fellow Baha'i man charged with seeking to establish a base for the community in Yemen, in the country's capital Sanaa April 3, 2016. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah - GF10000369865

Will Baha'is be released from Yemeni prisons as ordered?

At the end of March, Houthi leaders ordered the release of all Baha'is currently detained in Yemeni prisons, including their leader, but there have been no signs of progress in that direction in the ensuing weeks.

Facing the music of the Holocaust in Turkey

Turkey has long claimed that it has saved many Jews twice in history, but how true is that?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech, alongside Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (C), during a visit to the Corona virus outbreak central response unit at Israeli Ministry of Health in the Israeli city of Kiryat Malakhi on March 1, 2020. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP) (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Will COVID-19 reshape ultra-Orthodox leadership?

Public outrage against the ultra-Orthodox community is palpable in Israel for its members disobeying coronavirus restrictions against large gatherings.

A few people walk in the vicinity of the closed Al-Azhar mosque in Egypt's capital Cairo on March 20, 2020, after the country's Muslim religious authorities decided to put the Friday prayers on hold, in order to avoid gatherings and the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 disease. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP) (Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Egyptians feel demoralized by empty churches, mosques

The decision to suspend collective prayers in mosques and churches was criticized by some Egyptians who feel deprived of spiritual support during hard times.

RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL - MARCH 01: Benny Gantz, Blue and White Party leader leaves after making a statement to the press on March 1, 2020 in Ramat Gan, Israel. Israelis will head to the polls tomorrow for the third time in less than a year. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

After Gantz, will Israeli Arabs ever return to the ballot box?

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz forming a unity government with Benjamin Netanyahu has deflated the hopes of Arab Israelis of participating in national politics as equals, raising doubts that they will follow the urging of their representatives to take part in future elections.

Amedspor players (L) stand still to protest Turkish Football Federation after the kick-off their Turkish Cup quarter final first leg soccer match against Fenerbahce in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey February 9, 2016. Two rival Turkish football teams stood defiantly behind a banner urging peace on Tuesday before playing a surreal quarter final match to an empty stadium in Turkey's conflict-ridden southeast following a ban on spectators for chanting political slogans. The confli

Turkish soccer team lands in political hot water

The soccer team of Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city has become the target of nationalist animosity from rival fans as well as the government, which accuses the club of being linked to armed Kurdish militants.