Gulf States

Along with Iran's heightened anti-American rhetoric and local naval deployments, the recent Houthi missile attacks against U.S. vessels raise fears that Tehran's clients may take the war into a new and more dangerous phase.

Yemeni rebels successfully attacked a UAE military vessel with what appeared to be an Iranian cruise missile, raising the need for a stronger U.S. role in the strategic waterway.

The House of Saud is probably not headed for a serious crash, but its growing domestic tensions make a fender-bender increasingly likely.

The massive, unregulated apparatus that the Supreme Leader has established to oversee Shiite activities during the Hajj is an essential tool in Tehran's efforts to export the Islamic Revolution and disseminate anti-Western sentiment.

Relations between Riyadh and Tehran are in a downward spiral, raising the urgent need for a U.S. and international response.

The surprise visit may have been intended to shore up various aspects of the Saudi-Pakistani defense relationship, perhaps including their suspected arrangement regarding access to nuclear weapons.

While Hezbollah's next war with Israel seems inevitable in the long term, recent events and rhetoric suggest that the group and its Iranian patron will focus on targeting Saudi interests in the meantime.

Thanks to technical innovation, and despite oil price fluctuations, the United States is producing more of its own oil and using relatively less. With this decreased dependence on imported energy, the grave danger is that perceived U.S. indifference to Middle East developments could worry allies and embolden hostile forces. In

The Saudi government still says it had no connection to the hijackers, but newly released classified information indicates otherwise.