Executive Summary Following a week of hostility after tit-for-tat missile and air strikes, Iran and Pakistan have deescalated tensions and normalized relations, though Jaish al-Adl—the proximate cause for the recent crisis—remains an active threat to regional stability. Jaish al-Adl is an anti-Shia Islamist militant group... MORE

Executive Summary: Iran has granted Armenia access to its Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports to facilitate Yerevan’s trade access to India. The proposed east-west transit route will serve as a supplemental component of the International North-South Transport Corridor in facilitating greater regional trade. Armenia has... MORE

On December 25, 2023, during the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council summit in St. Petersburg, the Russian-dominated Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran inked an extensive free-trade agreement (FTA). Representatives from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Iran, and Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission Board Mikhail... MORE

In December 2023, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash announced that Iran and Azerbaijan would sign an official agreement on the development and opening of the Aras Corridor (Trend.az, December 18, 2023). Bazrpash stated that development of the corridor will begin with... MORE

Executive Summary Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi is a prominent Hezbollah financier who operated money laundering schemes across Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East. He was arrested in Romania in February 2023 and subsequently extradited to the United States. The arrest of Bazzi and several other... MORE

On November 28, Kazakhstan’s Defense Ministry declared that the process of selecting a domestic company for the production of Turkish combat drones was already underway (Kazinform, November 28). The statement confirmed earlier news that the production of Turkish Anka unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Kazakhstan... MORE

Yerevan is seeking to resettle some of the more than 100,000 Armenians who fled Karabakh following the restoration of Azerbaijani control there to Armenia’s Syunik Oblast, according to Yevgeny Mikhailov, a Russian specialist on international conflicts (Svpressa.ru, December 10). The region, sandwiched between Azerbaijan proper... MORE

On November 28, Iranian state media reported that Tehran had finalized a long-awaited deal with Russia to procure Sukhoi Su-35 fighters jets, attack helicopters, and military trainer aircraft. Although some sources dubbed the announcement as another round of government speculation, Iranian Deputy Defense Minister General... MORE

While much of the world’s attention was focused on the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the UN Security Council’s sanctions on the development and export of Iranian missiles quietly expired on October 18 (Amwaj.media, October 22). The sanctions were part of UN Security Council Resolution... MORE

The Kremlin has welcomed the Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza that began on November 24. The pause, however, does not fit into Russia’s larger designs for the Middle East. From Moscow's perspective, further escalation would have been a much better option in disrupting the US-led world... MORE