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April 28, 2026

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C), alongside US State Department Counselor Michael Needham (2L) and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (2R), speaks during a meeting.

US seeks to train Lebanon army units to disarm Hezbollah: What to know

Funding for such a program remains unclear, though the Pentagon has requested $36 million for fiscal year 2027 to support Lebanon’s army.

ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Despite Trump pressure to limit Israel's Lebanon attacks, Aoun-Netanyahu meeting still unlikely

As President Donald Trump pressures Israel to limit its strikes in Lebanon, Hezbollah is taking advantage of the situation.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to journalists as he arrives for an informal meeting of the European Council in Nicosia, Cyprus, April 24, 2026.

Why US, Israel are freezing France out of Lebanon talks

With talks between Israel and Lebanon being held in Washington, Paris still insists that it must be involved to balance possible American bias and to protect Beirut’s interests.

A person walks past the closed Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center on Jan. 7, 2021, in New York City.

Why did the Met Opera lose its Saudi funding deal?

The deal, announced as a nonbinding memorandum of understanding last September, would have seen the PIF inject up to $200 million into the opera institution over the next eight years.

Latest News

Analysis

Israel fears Trump angling for Lebanon deal to offset Iran missteps

US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (R) holds a signed "Make America Great Again" hat while (L-R) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Lebanon Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad listen to US President Donald Trump speak during a meeting with Lebanon Ambassador to the US and Israel Ambassador to the US, at the White House in Washington, DC on April 23, 2026. US President Donald Trump met Lebanese and Israeli envoys at a new round of peace talks Thursday, with Beirut seeking a one-month extension of a

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

How are Iran-linked tankers still moving through Hormuz blockade?

BAY ISMOYO / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Israel sees chance of US-Iran deal as almost 'non-existent,' readies for war

ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

US boards Iran-linked tanker in Indian Ocean, vows pursuit of 'ghost fleet'

TOWNSVILLE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 14: A US Navy Seahawk helicopter takes off from the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan on July 14, 2017 in Townsville, Australia. USS Ronald Reagan is a 1,092- foot aircraft carrier which carries a crew of 4,539 around 60 aircraft. Exercise Talisman Sabre is the largest combined military exercise undertaken in Australia. The biennial exercise is the principal Australian and U.S. military training activity. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Diplomatic Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Joyce Karam

Editor-in-Chief

Rosaleen Carroll

News Reporter and Supporting Editor

In Washington, DC, US, reporting on the Middle East

Paul J. Saunders

In Washington, DC, reporting on Russia in the Middle East

A Turkish military tank is seen in a destroyed neighbourhood of Sarmin town, about eight kilometres southeast of the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria, on March 10, 2020. - When protesters in March 2011 demanded their rights and regime change, they likely never imagined it would trigger a reaction that has led to the 21st century's biggest war. Nine years on, President Bashar al-Assad is still in power and there to stay, more than 380,000 people have died, dozens of towns and cities razed to the ground an

Biden leaves Syria on back burner as war marks 10 years

In his first months in office, President Joe Biden's team has signaled that Syria’s civil war won’t be among his top foreign policy priorities.

Biden's deputy secretary of state nominee OK'd by Senate committee

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved moving Wendy Sherman's nomination to the full Senate, with some Democrats and Republicans who had disagreed with her on the Iran deal voting to confirm her anyway.

US hits Iranian officials with travel restriction over ‘gross human rights violations’

For the first time, the Biden administration targets alleged IRGC interrogators over inhumane detention of protesters.

Intel: US sends B-52 bombers back to Middle East amid attacks by Iran-linked proxies

Following drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia this weekend, it is not clear that the Pentagon's deterrence tactic is paying off.

Israeli Defence Minister and alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz arrives at the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in Jerusalem on December 2, 2020. - Gantz said his party will vote for an opposition bill to dissolve parliament, a move that could force a fourth election in under two years. (Photo by Alex KOLOMIENSKY / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ALEX KOLOMIENSKY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Gantz informs Biden administration of updated Israeli plans to strike Iran

Israel's defense minster joins other officials in subtle warning to Washington over Iran nuclear talks.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - MARCH 05: Iraqi security forces patrol outside Sayidat al-Najat (Our lady of Salvation) Cathedral on March 5, 2021 in Baghdad, Iraq. Pope Francis began his historic first ever papal visit to Iraq. In his first foreign trip since the start of the pandemic Pope Francis will visit Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and the cities of Qaraqosh and Mosul, which were heavily destroyed by ISIS. Although the trip is seen as an act of solidarity, the Vatican has been forced to defend the decision to go ahead with

US Embassy in Baghdad warns of attacks from 'Iran-supported groups' in Iraq

The announcement follows several attacks on the US military in the country as well as retaliatory strikes on Iraqi militias by the United States.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks during a press conference at the International Conference on the Legal-International Claims of the Holy Defense in the capital Tehran on February 23, 2021. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran to present 'concrete plan of action' for nuclear talks, Zarif says

Iran's foreign minister shot down comments by a senior politician who said Tehran would negotiate if the United States promises sanctions relief within a year.

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 25 : The President of Iran Hassan Rouhani shakes hands with UN Secretary-General António Guterres during the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations on September 25, 2019 in New York City. The United Nations General Assembly, or UNGA, is expected to attract over 90 heads of state in New York City for a week of speeches, talks and high level diplomacy concerning global issues (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Biden administration's textbook approach to Iran may be paying off

The United States builds consensus with European Union partners first, while bolstering deterrence; Rezai says Iran willing to talk if US sends 'clear signal' on sanctions; Rouhani’s missing coattails in Iran’s June elections.

Republicans challenge Biden's Pentagon policy nominee on Iran

Colin Kahl said he supports the Abraham Accords and continued pressure on Tehran.

International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda (C) and deputy prosecutor James Stewart (R) attend the initial appearance before judges of member of the board of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona of the Central African Republic, at the ICC in The Hague on January 25, 2019, following his extradition from France on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. - Ngaissona is charged with coordinating so-called anti-Balaka militia which emerged after

Biden faces calls to lift Trump's controversial ICC sanctions

The International Criminal Court’s investigation into potential war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas is looming over the Biden administration’s review of sanctions on the Hague-based tribunal.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saied Khatibzadeh gestures during a press conference in Tehran on February 22, 2021. - Iran hailed as a "significant achievement" a temporary agreement Tehran reached with the head of the UN nuclear watchdog on site inspections. That deal effectively bought time as the United States, European powers and Tehran try to salvage the 2015 nuclear agreement that has been on the brink of collapse since Donald Trump withdrew from it. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KEN

Iran says 'time not ripe' for negotiations with US

Tehran has said Washington's proposed inclusion in negotiations over reviving the Iran nuclear deal cannot work unless the United States lifts sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

TOPSHOT - Armed Yemeni tribesmen loyal to the Shiite Huthi rebels sit in the back of an armed vehicle during a gathering to mobilise more fighters into several battlefronts on November 1, 2016 on the outskirts of the capital Sanaa.
The war in Yemen escalated in March 2015 when the Saudi-led coalition launched a military campaign to push back the Huthi rebels, after they seized the capital in 2014 and then advanced on other parts of Yemen.

/ AFP / MOHAMMED HUWAIS (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED

US sanctions two Houthi military leaders after attacks on Saudi Arabia

The administration's revocation of the Houthis' terrorist designation has been met with further missile strikes.