Alex Raufoglu is RFE/RL's senior correspondent in Washington, D.C.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's commissioner for sanctions policy, told RFE/RL in an interview that any relief for Moscow and Russian oil only serves to extend the war.
Azeem Ibrahim, a longtime Middle East observer, tells RFE/RL that the Strait of Hormuz is increasingly becoming more than just a chokepoint for oil, describing it as a space where economic pressure, military risk, and geopolitical ambition converge.
RFE/RL spoke with Max Meizlish, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former official at the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, on the intersection of naval blockades and financial warfare as Washington halts traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Marathon talks aimed at halting the war in Iran ended without a breakthrough, as US Vice President JD Vance flew back to the United States amid major questions what comes next for the 43-day-old conflict.
WASHINGTON -- The United States has condemned Russia’s latest actions against independent media following reports of new detentions and a high-profile newsroom raid in Moscow.
US Vice President JD Vance has stepped into the most consequential diplomatic challenge of his tenure, heading to Islamabad to lead high-stakes negotiations with Iran.
When NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte took the stage at the Reagan Institute on April 9, he delivered a message of pragmatism rather than panic: NATO is not a spent force in crisis, but a cornerstone in transition.
RFE/RL spoke with Allison Minor, director of the Atlantic Council’s Project for Middle East Integration, about the shaky US-Iran cease-fire and what could come next for the war and the region.
Israeli and Lebanese representatives will meet in Washington next week, a State Department official said hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for talks with Lebanon.
Veteran ambassador Joey Hood, a career diplomat who has served with a focus on the Middle East under multiple US administrations, says the US and Iran have each drawn stark lessons from the violent new chapter in decades of hostility.
US President Donald Trump says the United States has agreed to a two-week Pakistani-brokered cease-fire, pulling back from the brink to allow the two sides time to negotiate a peace deal.
The West “must keep Ukraine as a priority” and increase pressure on Russia amid the US-Israeli war with Iran, which is drawing attention away from Europe’s deadliest conflict since 1945, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told RFE/RL. He also said the Iran war “is now also a NATO topic.”
Former White House Iran adviser Nate Swanson warns that US threats of rapid strikes are largely psychological and unlikely to shift Tehran’s calculus, as tensions rise over the Strait of Hormuz and prospects for a near-term deal remain slim.
US President Donald Trump renewed his threat to wipe out Iran's power plants and bridges if it doesn't reach an agreement to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, warning the country could be “taken out in one night.”
WASHINGTON -- A reported incident involving a US F-15 over Iran is drawing renewed scrutiny to the risks American aircraft face when operating in heavily defended airspace, underscoring a broader reality: Even one of the world’s most successful fighter jets is not immune in contested environments.
Rescue teams continue to search early on April 4 for a US crew member missing after their fighter jet was brought down over Iran, one of two American forces planes reportedly knocked out of the sky in the region a day earlier.
The F-15E Strike Eagle, which US officials say was shot down over Iran on April 3, is one of the US military’s most advanced dual-role fighter aircraft, designed to carry out both air-to-air combat and deep strike missions against ground targets.
A US crew member has been rescued by American forces after a jet fighter was shot down over Iran, a US official told RFE/RL, and the search is ongoing for a second, in the first known loss of an American plane to hostile fire since the war began.
The flow of volunteer humanitarian aid from the United States to Ukraine -- a critical lifeline for frontline communities -- is coming under mounting strain, as disruptions linked to the Iran conflict ripple through global shipping networks.
US President Donald Trump on April 1 said the United States is close to “finishing the job” in Iran, while warning that US forces will continue to strike the country “extremely hard” for another “two to three weeks.”
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