Features

Features This photo taken on April 18, 2026 shows Sudanese Ali Gebbai, a volunteer responsible for handling burial procedures for unidentified bodies in the capital, Khartoum, examines one of the unidentified corpses at the mortuary of Omdurman's Al-Nao Educational Hospital. (AFP)

Dealing with the Dead in the Ruins of Sudan’s War

At a makeshift morgue in Khartoum, engineer turned mortician Ali Gebbai clicked through a spreadsheet of the dead. Thousands of entries, each with a photo and…

Features FILE PHOTO: Strait of Hormuz map is seen in this illustration taken April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

A Lesson from 1915 … Why the Strait of Hormuz Can’t be Taken by Force

The debate over reopening the Strait of Hormuz represents one of the most sensitive issues in politics and security. As questions continue to grow about why US…

Asharq Al Awsat (London)
Features A satellite imagery taken on February 1, 2026, shows a new roof over a previously destroyed building at Isfahan nuclear site, Iran. 2026 (PLANET LABS PBC/Handout via Reuters/ File photo)

Trump Keeps Talking About Iran’s ‘Nuclear Dust.’ What Is It?

Luke Broadwater, David E. Sanger* In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has been talking about a substance he says is key to ending the United States’…

Features A member of the Danish Refugee Council and Jasmar Human Security Organization uses a metal probe as he searches for land mines in Al-Mogran Park in Khartoum on April 19, 2026. (AFP)

Khartoum Mines Pose Hidden Threat to Returning Residents

Specialized Sudanese army teams are clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance across Khartoum, amid suspicions the Rapid Support Forces had planted explosives…

Asharq Al Awsat (Khartoum)
Features  24 April 2026, Cyprus, Nikosia: French President Emmanuel Macron arrives at the informal meeting of the EU heads of state and government. (dpa)

Macron Leaves Future Open as Political Curtain Nears

With just one year left in his second five-year term, French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will quit politics in 2027 -- leaving observers and…

Features Iranian Serdar Taghizade speaks to a customer inside his currency exchange business in Istanbul on Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Iranians Have Long Sought Work and Relative Stability in Türkiye. The War Could Force Some to Return

Sadri Haghshenas spends her days selling borek — a layered, savory pastry — at a shop in Istanbul, but her mind is on her daughter in Tehran. The family…

Asharq Al Awsat (London)
Features A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. (CENTCOM/Handout via Reuters)

Strait of Hormuz Blockade Step by Step: What Do We Know?

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained mostly at a standstill on Monday, with just three vessels crossing the vital waterway, according to…

Features Qalibaf (L) at a meeting of the regime's Expediency Discernment Council, with Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr. (Qalibaf’s official site)

US-Iran Talks Test Power Balances in Tehran as National Security Council Comes to the Forefront

After US-Israeli bombardment eliminated Iran’s supreme leader and much of its top echelons, the country’s leadership didn’t fall apart — but negotiations to…

Asharq Al Awsat (London)
Features Garbage litters the ground next to makeshift shelters housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on April 20, 2026. (AFP)

Rats, Fleas Plague Gaza’s Displaced as Temperatures Rise

As springtime temperatures rise in Gaza, a surge in rats, fleas and other pests has compounded the misery of hundreds of thousands of displaced people still…

Features Petro Hurin, 76, one of hundreds of thousands of "liquidators" brought to clean up the aftermath of the explosion that tore apart reactor Four of the Chornobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine on April 26, 1986, reflected in a mirror as he stands in his house in the village of Khutory, Cherkasy region, Ukraine April 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Chornobyl First Responder Says Few Survive 40 Years on

Petro Hurin says his health has never been the same since he was sent 40 years ago to clear the Chornobyl site in the wake of the world's worst nuclear…

Features Members of the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral for colleagues who were killed in a US airstrike in Anbar, in Najaf, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP)

Driven by the Pressures of War, Iran Gives Its Field Commanders More Power Over Factions in Iraq

Iran has granted its commanders greater autonomy over armed factions in Iraq, allowing some groups to carry out operations without Tehran’s approval, a shift…

Features Female members of Iran's Basij militia are seen during a government rally in support of Mojtaba Khamenei. (The New York Times)

For Iran, Flexing Control Over Hormuz Is a New Deterrent

Mark Mazzetti, Adam Entous, Julian E. Barnes* The United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on the argument that if Iran one day got a…

Features Commuters drive past a giant billboard referring to the Strait of Hormuz along a busy street in Tehran on April 19, 2026. (AFP)

Allies Fear a Rushed US–Iran Framework Deal Could Backfire, Leaving Technical Deadlock

European allies fear an inexperienced US negotiating team is pushing for a swift, headline-grabbing framework deal with Iran that could entrench rather than…

Features People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty traditional main bazaar during Iranian New Year, or Nowruz, holidays in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP)

Iranians Expect No Post-War Respite Under Military Rule

Iranians striving to maintain a semblance of normal life after weeks of US and Israeli bombing and a deadly crackdown on protesters in January remain daunted…

Features An Iraqi fish farmer stands over dead fish floating in a tank at his farm in the town of Zubaydiya, near the city of Kut in southern Iraq on April 14, 2026. (AFP)

Iraq Fish Die-off Leaves Farmers Mourning Lost Livelihoods

On the banks of Iraq's Tigris River, Haidar Kazem mourned 300 tons of the fish he had carefully raised in ponds wiped out by a flood of polluted water. Water…

Features Revolutionary Guard speedboats are seen during maneuvers in the Strait of Hormuz. (Tasnim)

Why Iran’s ‘Mosquito Fleet’ Remains a Potent Threat in the Strait of Hormuz

Iranian warships sunk by US and Israeli attacks litter naval harbors along the Gulf coast, but what is sometimes called a “mosquito fleet” lurks in the shadows…

Features The United Nations needs structural reform (Photo by Reuters)

When Does Peace Become the Rule Rather than the Exception?

It has become common among analysts to say that the world has entered a new global order, where the logic of “might makes right” has replaced the “power of…

Antoine El Hac
Features President Donald Trump waves to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Iran War Has Revealed Trump's Pressure Point: The Economy

Seven weeks of war have failed to topple Iran’s theocratic rulers or force them to meet all of President Donald Trump's demands, but for US adversaries and…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features  A woman reacts as emergency personnel search for survivors at the site of an Israeli strike carried out just before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)

In Final Moments Before Truce, Israeli Strike Kills Lebanese Man’s Family

Hassan Abu Khalil's family miraculously survived six weeks of war in southern Lebanon, but tragedy struck in the final minutes before a ceasefire came into…

Features FILE PHOTO: A member of the People's Liberation Army stands as the strategic strike group displays DF-5C nuclear missiles during a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, September 3, 2025. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

How China’s Weapons Transfers to Iran Have Evolved Over Decades

Washington: David Pierson For much of the last two decades, China has maintained a delicate balance in its military relationship with Iran, offering often…

Features Sudanese refugees, who have fled the violence in their country, line up to receive food rations from World Food Program (WFP), in Adre Chad July 20, 2023. (Reuters)

A Look at Sudan’s War by the Numbers

Sudan is entering a fourth year of war between the military and paramilitary forces. The fighting has pushed many people into famine, caused a huge…

Features This image from an Airbus Defense and Space's Pléiades Neo satellite shows a truck that analysts believe was carrying highly enriched uranium to a tunnel in the compound of the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center, in Isfahan, Iran, June 9, 2025. (AP)

Iran Nuclear Program ‘Badly Damaged’ But Not Wiped Out

The United States and Israel may have obstructed the path towards a future Iran-built nuclear bomb by severely damaging Tehran's nuclear and ballistic…

Asharq Al Awsat (London) Asharq Al Awsat (Tehran)
Features US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C), alongside US State Department Counselor Michael Needham (2L) and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (2R), speaks during a meeting with Lebanon's Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad (out of frame) and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter (out of frame) at the State Department in Washington, DC, on April 14, 2026. (AFP)

Rare Precedents for Lebanon-Israel Talks

There are few precedents for the direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials that began in Washington on Tuesday. - 1949, Fragile armistice - The…