The recent Mecca Agreement between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan has been presented as the beginning of a new regional security architecture. Yet behind the language of cooperation and deterrence lies a fundamental ambiguity: the alliance does not clearly identify the threat against which its members are supposed to act. For Alptekin Dursunoğlu, editor-in-chief of the Near East News agency, ...
The forty-day war that the United States launched against Iran on February 28, regardless of whether it reignites in the near future, has ushered in a new era in the regional security architecture of West Asia. The principal facts demonstrated by the recent war were, first, that Iran is not a country that can easily be eliminated or absorbed. Over ...
By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist It is now impossible to define the current state of the U.S.-Iran conflict as, in the classical sense, “a war between Iran and the U.S.” The geography of the war has expanded from the Strait of Hormuz to Bab el-Mandeb, from the Red Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean following the attacks in Egypt, and finally ...
By Ali Özgündüz, former Member of Turkish Parliament The international conference entitled “The Alliance to Prevent a Great War,” organized by the World Civilizations Initiative Research Center, was held at the Meyra Palace Hotel in Ankara on 18–19 July 2026. UWI will present the speeches held on the conference during the coming days. The conference, which featured presentations by speakers ...
By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist The war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran not only altered the balance of power and the power struggle among these countries but also seriously shook the security architecture that Gulf countries had been building for years. Because following the approximately 130-day war, a much clearer question now faces the Gulf states. Is the U.S. ...
In its June 2026 issue, the Iranian think tank Global Governance and Think Tank (GPTT) presented readers with condensed reflections from its executives and experts on various dimensions of the latest war against the US and Israel. Titled “The MoU Era: Opportunity and Distrust,” the issue offers a window into how the recent war is being interpreted in contemporary Iranian ...
By Azar Mahdavan, from Tehran / Iran Following the two recent wars imposed on Iran and Washington’s latest breach of commitment by withdrawing from the “Islamabad Understanding,” Iranian public opinion on negotiations has become more closely tied than ever to questions of trust, security and national interests. In an interview with Mohammad Sarfi, editor-in-chief of the Tehran Times, we examined ...
No permanent agreement can be reached between West and East… War continues in Eurasia. The conflict between Russia and the West in Ukraine is intensifying. The purported understanding reached between Trump and Putin at their August 2025 meeting in Alaska turned out to be nothing but a scrap of paper. There is talk of the possibility of Russia’s military operation ...
By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist The initial justification for the war launched by Israel and the U.S. against Iran was Iran’s nuclear program, its uranium enrichment capacity, and the goal of limiting Iran’s strategic deterrence. However, at this stage, the issues determining the war’s fate are no longer these; the focus has shifted to who will establish hegemony over the ...
By Mustafa Ilker Yücel, from Tehran / Iran For Iran’s martyred leader Ali Khamenei and members of his family, who lost their lives in the US and Israeli attacks, the funeral prayer was held on July 5 at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Mosque in Tehran. After the religious ceremony at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Mosque was completed, another official farewell ...