Politics

While the 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed alarm in a resolution at "the unprecedented scale of the violent crackdown on peaceful protests by security forces" in Iran, High Commissioner Volker Türk condemned the security forces' firing of "live ammunition" at protesters, deploring the deaths of "thousands" of people, including children. At the heart of this repression are the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideological arm of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The 'Pasdaran' ("guardians" in Farsi) are an extremely organized armed force, accused by Westerners of orchestrating and even participating in the crackdown on the protest movement.

Welcome to Tropic Thunder , a five-part short series by Levant Time designed to help you understand the different reasons behind the current U.S. interventionism in the Caribbean. This series was completed 48 hours before the American attack on Venezuela.

« Totalitarian regimes are not content to dominate bodies; they seek to enslave minds. » – George Orwell Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the United States has imposed a large-scale economic sanctions regime on Tehran, which has become over the decades one of the most multidimensional pressure tools in American diplomacy. The first measures, instituted after the hostage-taking at the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979, froze Iranian assets in the United States via Executive Order 12170, immobilizing billions of dollars and blocking numerous financial operations. In the mid-1990s, Washington strengthened its arsenal: in March 1995, all American investment in the Iranian energy sector was prohibited; a measure followed in May by a total trade embargo covering almost all exchanges and technology transfers. The « Iran and Libya Sanctions Act » of August 1996 introduced extraterritorial sanctions, threatening foreign companies investing in Iranian hydrocarbons.

The latest article in our analysis of the evolution of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership of Barcelona (Euromed), then of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), draws an unvarnished assessment of the achievements and shortcomings that have marked, for Lebanon, the two phases 1995-2008 and 2008-2025 of this dual European strategic initiative. The Euro-Mediterranean Barcelona Process (Euromed), then the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), have brought political, economic, and institutional achievements to Lebanon. However, these remain limited due to the chronic instability that has plagued the country since 1995, and more particularly since 2008.

In Syria, the question is no longer whether Bashar al-Assad’s regime could endure. That chapter is now closed. The real issue lies elsewhere. Can Syria, in the aftermath of the old regime’s collapse, rebuild a unified and viable state, or does the risk of disintegration and partition linger, merely taking on new forms? The fall of Assad’s regime at the end of 2024, followed by Ahmad al-Chareh’s rise to power during the transitional period, marked a major turning point in the Syrian landscape. While this upheaval did not, in itself, bring an end to the crisis, it profoundly reshaped its political contours. The debate has shifted from the fate of a regime to the very future of the state itself.

Having covered the birth of the Barcelona Process and its development into the Union for the Mediterranean, which marked its expansion, it is worth asking: where does the Union stand today? What has it achieved, and what challenges remain? This article takes stock and offers a snapshot of the situation, along with prospects for 2026. The Barcelona Process is known by three main terms: “process,” “partnership,” and the “Med” in Euromed. These labels reflect the initiative’s goal of fostering cooperation, dialogue, and exchanges between countries forming a Mediterranean community, as well as those closely connected geographically. Later, neighboring countries joined, along with organizations representing sub-regions, such as the EU and the Arab Maghreb Union. Thirty years on, the initiative is far from defunct. Yet, tested by time and events, it had to evolve within a new framework: less ambitious, but more pragmatic and realistic.

The Energy Gamble in the Face of Economic Collapse With the signing of the maritime boundary delimitation agreement with Cyprus in 2025, the exploitation of offshore resources is emerging as a potentially decisive lever for reviving Lebanon’s deeply troubled economy. While this agreement has provided a formal legal framework for maritime boundaries, it has not, however, eliminated all the economic and geopolitical challenges. Development delays, persistent regional disputes, and political gridlock present Lebanon with a complex equation: seizing energy opportunities without compromising its national interests.

In the first part of this analysis, we began by contrasting the two visions of Europe as seen by its founders, in the aftermath of the Second World War, particularly Robert Schuman, and as it exists today, deprived of its founding impetus and obscuring its Christian and Greco-Roman roots. Here is the second part, based on an analysis by the philosopher Chantal Delsol, who has just published a book on the "Old Continent". In The Insurrection of Particularities, Chantal Delsol draws a severe conclusion of a gradual departure from this founding spirit. According to her, contemporary Europe has substituted an ideology of neutrality for heritage, administration for culture, and abstract individualism for Christian anthropology. By claiming to base itself exclusively on universal norms detached from all tradition, it has progressively delegitimized the concrete affiliations – nations, cultures, religions, ways of life – which nevertheless structured the European space.

Third article in our series of articles on the Euro-Mediterranean partnership: the Barcelona Process, its evolutions, its funding, and its replacement from 2008 by the Mediterranean Union, which became the Union for the Mediterranean The Mediterranean, rich in cultures, an space of interconnection, a crossroads of civilizations, is a group of countries sharing a heritage, in which their different cultures have enriched each other. Relations have extended to economic and scientific exchanges. This unique identity has fostered the creation of networks that endure against a backdrop of a feeling of regional unity.

The notion of the “Old Continent” refers to a Europe shaped by a long history, a plurality of peoples, and a singular spiritual depth. However, this Europe is not a fixed reality: it has been conceived, reconstructed, and reinterpreted according to different eras. Two visions allow us to measure its evolution and contemporary tensions: the one elaborated in the post-World War II period by Robert Schuman and Christian democracy; and the one described today by Chantal Delsol in L’Insurrection des particularités. Between these two moments, Europe has moved from a project of civilization based on reconciliation to an identity crisis marked by fragmentation and strategic impotence.