Executive Summary: The first anniversary of the war in Gaza has revealed the near-total disappearance of Russia’s influence in the Middle East, as it has not been able to partner with those averse to US positions. Moscow hopes to exploit the shift in international attention... MORE

Executive Summary Hezbollah has used Lebanon’s ongoing political and financial crisis to acquire large gold reserves from its citizens living in poverty, doing so in a way that offers the group the chance to bolster both its popularity its asset reserves in preparation for a... 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

Hamas has claimed responsibility for two rocket attacks on northern Israel from Lebanon this year, one of which occurred after the group’s massacre of Israelis on October 7. These were launched from bases in southern Lebanon under the control of Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah (Anadolu... MORE

When the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out in October, one of the questions asked was whether Lebanese Hezbollah would open a second front against Israel. Like Hamas, Hezbollah is a member of the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance,” which includes several non-state militant actors and governments, including... MORE

On April 10, 2020, the U.S. treasury announced a $10 million award for information on Muhammad Kawtharani, a Lebanese Hezbollah commander (state.gov, April 10, 2020). Kawtharani is one of the founding members of Hezbollah and has been extensively involved in Iraqi affairs since the U.S.-led... MORE

The explosion in the Port of Beirut on August 4 caused domestic reverberations throughout Lebanon. With close to 200 people killed, over 6,000 wounded and damages estimated at over $15 billion, the public outrage toward the ruling elite was immediate and damning (Daily Sabah, August... MORE

On August 25, the Armenian media announced the arrival of two ethnic-Armenian families from Beirut, Lebanon, to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan (Asbarez, August 25). This was declared part of Yerevan’s assistance programs to Lebanon’s Armenian community. The wider initiative specifically includes a plan to... MORE

The Kremlin’s website reported, on August 12, that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had initiated a phone call to congratulate Vladimir Putin on the Russian vaccine against COVID-19 and to discuss bilateral issues. The next day, however, in a wholly unprecedented move, Aliyev’s press service sharply... MORE

The German Ministry of Interior Horst Seehofer announced on April 30 that the Lebanese organization Hezbollah would be fully banned from carrying out any activity on German soil. The announcement was followed by raids on four mosques and organizations suspected of being linked to Hezbollah,... MORE