Open Dialogue Research Journal
In late February 2026, a missile strike devastated the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab, Hormozgan province. Around 165 pupils, mostly girls aged seven to twelve, along with teachers and staff, were killed. The school stood several hundred meters from an IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary […]
The recent joint attack by the United States and Israel on Iran marks a dramatic and dangerous escalation in the Middle East. According to security expert Roland Popp of the Military Academy at ETH Zurich, the assault was not a spontaneous response to an imminent nuclear threat but the culmination […]
The allies of the United States have gone native, feral even, in the jungle of international relations planted by President Donald J. Trump. While we keep hearing about how awful Russia’s war against Ukraine is, with its shattering of international law and its dismissiveness of the provisions of the United […]
Scott Ritter says that in about two weeks, Trump will seek a negotiated end to the war, and that Russia and China will urge Iran to agree to such a face-saving-for-Trump end of this war. Larry Johnson explains why the U.S. and Israel are heading for defeat in this war, […]
The Islamic Republic either survives the latest onslaught, Iran goes the Venezuelan route, or “Balkanization” begins. The joint US-Israeli campaign against Iran officially aims to demilitarize the country and overthrow its government. The conflict has only just begun, but Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already been killed along with several high-ranking military […]
In a dramatic escalation of Middle East tensions, the United States and Israel launched a joint military campaign against Iran on February 28, 2026, resulting in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggering widespread retaliation across the region. The crisis – the most serious confrontation between […]
In the midst of February 2026, the Middle East teetered on the brink of a new war. The U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, declared by President Donald Trump as “major combat operations,” culminated months of tense negotiations and military preparations. Trump, who has repeatedly emphasized that he does not […]
When phase two of the Gaza ceasefire was announced in mid-January, it was framed as a tentative but historic transition: from raw military devastation toward governance, reconstruction, and the possibility of a post-war political order. At the heart of this phase stood the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza […]
Israel is preparing to start construction next month on a bypass road through the heart of the occupied West Bank, a move critics say will further fragment Palestinian territory and entrench the de facto annexation of an area vital to the viability of a future Palestinian state. The bypass is […]
Tensions are growing between Turkiye-Pakistan and Israel-Cyprus-Greece. Stability in the Eastern Mediterranean can no longer be taken for granted as a result of three recent developments: 1) the growing Turkish-Israeli rivalry in post-Assad Syria; 2) Israel’s reported plans to establish a rapid response force with Cyprus and Greece; and 3) Turkish ally Pakistan’s new military […]
Comments