Tag Archives: US

Iran’s Sanctions-Evasion Infrastructure Has Become Systematic Rather than Improvised In early February 2025, President Donald Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), formally reinstating his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. The directive sought to deny Tehran any path to nuclear weapons, constrain its ballistic missile program, and dismantle support for regional proxies by …

Unlike in the Past, This Time the Regime Did Not Sever Access but Instead Degraded Internet Function The Islamic Republic of Iran’s internet blackout against the backdrop of the January 2026 protests is fundamentally different from the shutdowns Tehran imposed during earlier rounds of protests in 2019 or 2022. Unlike in the …

Syria Holds an Estimated 2.5 Billion Barrels of Oil and 8.5 Trillion Cubic Feet of Gas but Reserves Do Not Guarantee Recovery Syria’s oil and gas sector once anchored state revenues and energy security. Before 2011, the country produced roughly 380,000 barrels per day of oil and about 25 million …

The Project That Once Balanced Russian Expertise with Iraqi Sovereignty Now Exposes the Fragility of This Set-up Western sanctions have reshaped Iraq’s oil sector. In October 2025, the United States and United Kingdom targeted Lukoil and Rosneft’s overseas operations to curtail Moscow’s war financing. Lukoil promptly declared force majeure at West Qurna-2, which …

Independent Certification of Reserves and Scaled-up Processing Would Elevate Turkey’s Role in Global Supply Chains of Critical Minerals Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan frames the supposed discovery of 694 million tons of rare earth element reserves in Beylikova, Eskişehir, as a strategic opportunity to place Turkey among the top global producers of rare earth …

By Parisa HafeziOctober 22, 20257:59 AM GMT+3Updated 3 hours ago DUBAI, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Iran’s economy is at risk of simultaneous hyperinflation and severe recession, officials and analysts say, as clerical rulers scramble to preserve stability with limited room to manoeuvre after a snapback of U.N. sanctions. They followed a breakdown …

Continued Blacklisting and Enhanced Sanctions Would Hinder Iran’s Trade Contacts, Foreign Investment, and Access to Financial Institutions The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international body charged with combatting money laundering and terror finance, placed Iran on its blacklist in 2007 because of its failure to address weaknesses in its …

A major change in the energy landscape of the South Caucasus has occurred with the opening of the Iğdır-Nakhichevan gas pipeline, which has strengthened strategic energy alliances and reshaped regional dependencies. This accomplishment is especially significant as Türkiye navigates a critical energy security phase, since important natural gas contracts with …

Despite vast oil and gas reserves, Iran faces a severe energy crisis due to decades of mismanagement, excessive subsidies, corruption, and international sanctions, which have crippled its infrastructure and distorted energy markets. Without structural reforms and international engagement, the country risks deeper economic instability, environmental degradation, and political unrest. Iran has …

Turkey’s Growing Reliance on U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas Represents a Purposeful and Strategic Policy to Improve Energy Security As Turkey’s second-largest supplier of liquefied natural gas this past winter, the United States has become a significant player in the country’s gas industry. By topping five billion cubic meters and surpassing more established …