Middle East and North Africa

An unprecedented financial and political crisis has sparked mass protests in Lebanon, but a nonresponsive government and the coronavirus pandemic could stand in the way of demonstrators’ demands.

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post, covering May 7 to May 15, was compiled by Maleeha Coleburn and Rebecca Turkington.

U.S. government agencies accuse China of targeting COVID-19 research; TSMC to build chip factory in Arizona; Huawei struggles internationally without Google Apps; Cyberattack targets Iranian port; and U.S. Department of Justice charges scientists with wire fraud.

Alvin Young is a Rangel Fellow and master's candidate at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. After years of negotiations, Egypt has written to the UN S…

Iran has suffered one of the most severe coronavirus outbreaks and remains highly vulnerable as a result of official missteps and misinformation.

An update of the Council on Foreign Relations' Cyber Operations Tracker for the period between January and March 2020.

Iraq faces an uphill battle in meeting its obligations to the historic production cut agreement reached by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major producers such as Russia. The production cuts are due to begin today. Not only is Baghdad mired in deep economic and political crises that show little signs of abating but Iraq’s complex service agreements with international oil companies (IOCs) operating its southern fields means that the Gulf producer would actually have to pay more money to the foreign firms working in its oil sector in excess of existing service fees if it demands the IOCs rein in output to help Iraq meet its targeted quotas. The supplemental fees, which could be millions of dollars, are stipulated in the oil field service contracts that Iraq holds with foreign oil companies that have been assisting with its oil production capacity expansion program over the last several years. The payments structure for Iraq’s service contracts means that output cuts put an added financial strain on the ability of OPEC’s second largest oil producer to comply fully with its pledged one million b/d plus output reductions in the coming months.  

Yemen’s mounting internal divisions and a Saudi-led military intervention have spawned an escalating political, military, and humanitarian crisis.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his top political rival have made a pact amid a pandemic, prolonging the embattled prime minister’s political career and likely reinforcing Israel’s nationalistic direction.

Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, international sanctions had severely curtailed Iraq’s oil industry. Oil production sat at 1.4 million barrels a day (b/d). Iraq’s beleaguered refining indu…

Amir Asmar is a Department of Defense analyst and CFR’s national intelligence fellow. Throughout his intelligence career, his primary area of focus has been the Middle East. He held a wide range of a…

Western leaders have long criticized OPEC’s power to raise oil prices, but the bloc’s influence is on the wane as U.S. oil production has soared and alternative energies have come to the fore.