Welcome back to the MBN Iran Briefing.

Welcome back to the MBN Iran Briefing.

The attacks come as forces for the Saudi-backed Yemeni government push to retake lost territory.

Gaza's full recovery is estimated to cost $71.4 billion. Nine months after Xi Jinping pledged $100 million to ease the crisis there, Beijing has not said how much of it has been spent.

Chinese investment in the UAE and Saudi Arabia boomed in 2025, but Washington ties access to its top AI chips to removing Chinese tech from Gulf networks.

Welcome to this week's issue of the MBN Agenda.

Saudi-backed government opens a nationwide campaign against the Iran-aligned group as Houthi fighters close in on Taiz and threaten the Bab al-Mandab

The Iran-backed Houthi movement has expanded its presence in Iraq in recent years through offices and joint coordination sites with armed factions aligned with Tehran as well as activities involvin…

Lebanon’s prime minister came to Washington on Monday seeking a timetable for Israeli withdrawal and help disarming Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister arrived the same day with critical shi…

After more than 20 years in Iraq, the U.S. this week formally withdrew the final 2,500 forces stationed there, as U.S. tensions with Iran put Baghdad in a delicate position, given its close relatio…

Iran’s military and security preparations are no longer confined to the country’s regular forces. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij militia are expanding training and mobil…

Israeli sources told MBN on Wednesday that Mossad operatives are now in Saudi Arabia, taking part in an investigation into a flydubai aircraft that made an emergency landing in the kingdom Wednesda…

You can read it in Arabic here, and check out MBN’s flagship Arabic-language Alhurra news platform (English version here). This week’s edition of the briefing is a joint effort by our new Iran repo…

U.S. and allied forces left their last remaining base in Iraq on Wednesday, completing a mission that began with the fight against ISIS. They leave behind a country navigating a wider regional conf…

Gulf and Iraqi officials told MBN this week that Iran has sent messages to Saudi Arabia denying responsibility for an attack earlier this month on the kingdom’s East-West oil pipeline, while sugges…

Over more than a decade, the Iran-backed Houthis have transformed themselves from a group reliant largely on small arms and medium weapons into a formidable military force armed with ballistic and …

On the night of September 17, Damascus witnessed something it had not seen in fifteen years. Assala Nasri, the Syrian-born superstar who had lived in exile since she bravely threw her support behin…

Houthi control of Yemen's Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab could benefit al-Qaida affiliates AQAP and al-Shabab, experts tell MBN.

Baghdad has secured an exemption from Washington allowing Iranian flights to and from the Shiite holy city of Najaf, following U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran’s aviation sector, an Iraqi Forei…

You can read it in Arabic here, and check out MBN’s flagship Arabic-language Alhurra news platform (also in English). If you were forwarded the MBN Iran Briefing, please subscribe. This week’s edit…

Iranian and Hezbollah commanders helped plan and carry out the Houthi offensive that seized the Red Sea port of Mocha this month, a former Houthi spokesman told MBN, calling it the first battle in …

For years, Yasser Abbas, the son of 90-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was known primarily as a businessman rather than a politician. But earlier this year, following a series of poli…

You can read it in Arabic here, and check out MBN’s flagship Arabic-language Alhurra news platform (English version here). This week’s edition of the briefing is a joint effort by our new Iran…

Nearly seven months into the war with Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday while addressing the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly that he was weighing a “big decision”: …

On Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump plans to be on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, waiting for the plane carrying Chinese President Xi Jinping to land — a gesture he has never before e…

U.S. airstrikes on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps positions on Sept. 1 were aimed at preempting possible Iranian attacks on undersea communications cables in the Strait of Hormuz, the Saudi Arab…

The Iraqi government has reached a two-stage agreement with armed factions aligned with Tehran to regulate their weapons and gradually hand some heavier weapons to Baghdad over the next nine months…

Follow our flagship MBN news sites in Arabic and English for the latest updates. If you prefer to read the Agenda in Arabic, click here. And if the MBN Agenda was forwarded to you, please subscribe…

China has become one of Iraq’s most important economic partners. It buys Iraq’s oil, helps build its infrastructure, and sells heaps of electronics and other consumer goods to its citizens.  B…

The U.S. has acknowledged for the first time that it has weapons in orbit, a disclosure intended to deter China and Russia even as the Pentagon said little about the nature of its capabilities. Air…

On Aug. 18, an airstrike targeted boats along the coast of Garmal in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, killing four people. Less than 48 hours later, another strike hit boats and people on…

At the BRICS+ summit in New Delhi last weekend, there were few overt signs of affection between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. In fact, there was no public in…

The resignation letter of Jacob Coxon (a 27-year-old who spent three years training AI models at OpenAI and Anthropic) has received more than 170 million views on social media. He pressed his case …

You can read it in Arabic here, and check out MBN’s flagship Arabic-language Alhurra news platform (also in English). This week’s edition of the briefing is a joint effort by our new Iran reporter …

The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, or the Mecca Pact, was signed on Aug.7 by leaders Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Pakistani Prime Minister She…

On May 1, the Turkish Foreign Ministry published a photograph and a brief statement about a meeting in Ankara between Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Falih al-Fayyadh, the head of Iraq’s Popular M…

The Iraqi government is now treating Sept. 30 as the start of a process to regulate weapons held by armed factions, many of which are backed by Iran, rather than as the deadline for bringing those …

A sharp escalation by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia, coupled with their advance toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, prompted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to ask President Donald Trump for…

Follow our flagship MBN news sites in Arabic and English for the latest updates. If you prefer to read the Agenda in Arabic, click here. And if the MBN Agenda was forwarded to you, please subscribe…

Beijing’s economic might, hands-off foreign policy and manufacturing prowess are reshaping the Middle East and North Africa.

Welcome back to the MBN Iran Briefing. You can read it in Arabic here, and check out MBN’s flagship Arabic-language Alhurra news platform (also in English). If you were forwarded the MBN Iran Brief…

For weeks, people on Persian-language social media have been asking about the fate of Mohammad-Bagher Kharrazi, a senior cleric with close ties to the leadership of the regime. Early last month, Kh…