{"applied_filters":{"end_date":"","lang":"","language":"","network":"","page":1,"per_page":20,"search":"","source":"alhurra","start_date":"","topic":"MBN Agenda","type":""},"available_filters":{"language_choices":[{"label":"Choose Language","value":""},{"label":"Arabic","value":"Arabic"}],"network_choices":[{"label":"All networks","value":""},{"label":"Alhurra","value":"Alhurra"}],"source_choices":[{"label":"All sources","value":""},{"label":"Alhurra","value":"alhurra"}],"sources":["alhurra"],"topics":["Economy & Trade","Iran","Iran Briefing","MBN Agenda","Magazine","Politics & Policy","Security & Conflict","Syria","\u0623\u0645\u0646 \u0648\u0635\u0631\u0627\u0639","\u0625\u064a\u0631\u0627\u0646","\u0627\u0644\u0633\u0639\u0648\u062f\u064a\u0629","\u0627\u0644\u0634\u0631\u0642 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0648\u0633\u0637","\u0627\u0644\u0635\u064a\u0646","\u0627\u0644\u0648\u0644\u0627\u064a\u0627\u062a \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062a\u062d\u062f\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0645\u064a\u0631\u0643\u064a\u0629","\u0627\u0646\u062a\u062e\u0627\u0628\u0627\u062a","\u062a\u062c\u0627\u0631\u0629 \u0648\u0627\u0642\u062a\u0635\u0627\u062f","\u062a\u0631\u0643\u064a\u0627","\u0633\u0648\u0631\u064a\u0627","\u0633\u064a\u0627\u0633\u0629 \u0648\u0633\u064a\u0627\u0633\u0627\u062a","\u0644\u0628\u0646\u0627\u0646","\u0645\u0627\u063a\u0627\u0632\u064a\u0646","\u0645\u0635\u0631","\u0646\u064a\u0648\u0632\u0644\u062a\u0631"],"types":[["","All types"],["article","Articles"],["media","Media"]]},"has_next":false,"has_prev":false,"items":[{"article_body_paragraphs":["Follow our flagship MBN news sites in Arabic and English for the latest updates. If you prefer to read the Agenda in Arabic, click here . And if the MBN Agenda was forwarded to you, please subscribe .","In this week\u2019s MBN Agenda: Washington is trying to turn the Iran war into a contest of economic leverage by bombing Iran\u2019s latest minelaying efforts in the Strait of Hormuz, using Venezuelan oil as a hedge against higher gas prices and deploying its \u201ceconomic D-Day\u201d to choke Tehran\u2019s access to U.S. dollars. But the hardest pressure point runs through China, just as Xi Jinping courts regional partners and heads to Egypt.","Elsewhere, Gulf states are split over how far to follow Washington\u2019s Iran sanctions, the U.S. is betting on promises from Syria\u2019s government, Beirut is wavering over expelling Iran\u2019s former ambassador and Baghdad faces trouble disarming Iran-aligned militias.","Vivian Lee, Sakina Abdallah and Asrar Chbaro contributed to this week\u2019s Agenda.","Washington Signals","Hormuz Becomes the War","The U.S. government spent the weekend attacking Iran\u2019s leverage from two directions. On Friday, President Donald Trump announced a deal giving the United States a huge stake in Venezuelan oil reserves, pitching it as a way to replenish U.S. supplies and eventually bring down gas prices. On Sunday, U.S. forces then struck Iranian positions on the Strait of Hormuz\u2019s Larak Island after they said Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards were about to lay sea mines nearby.","The two moves suggest the opening of a new phase of the now six-month war.","Trump has declared a \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy on Iranian mines after claiming the main Hormuz shipping lane had been completely cleared. When U.S. forces then saw what they described as an imminent attempt to mine it again, they bombed the mine launchers \u2013 and then stopped. Iran retaliated with some missiles on a U.S. base in Jordan, but the exchange did not immediately set off a renewed broader conflict, though Trump did vow on Monday to \u201c hit them hard \u201d in return.","For now, the American goal looks narrower than it did earlier in the war: keep Hormuz moving and prevent Iran from driving energy prices higher, and steadily increase economic pressure on Tehran. The Venezuela deal fits that strategy. Its oil will take years to develop at scale but the promise of 65 billion barrels at least gives Trump an answer to Iran\u2019s ability to make Americans and others pay more at the pump, which remains Tehran\u2019s strongest card.","Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent\u2019s promised \u201ceconomic D-Day\u201d got its first big test Friday when he moved to cut the UAE-based branches of Egypt\u2019s Banque Misr out of U.S. dollar transactions. The U.S. Treasury said the Egyptian bank processed roughly $1.8 billion for firms linked to Iran\u2019s shadow banking system, making it an important conduit for Tehran\u2019s access to dollars.","But the hardest nut for Bessent to crack is China. Chinese entities buy more than 80% of Iran\u2019s exported crude oil, making China\u2019s banks and oil traders far more important to Tehran\u2019s survival than the financial channels Washington is now closing through Banque Misr. That economic relationship is on full display this week as Chinese President Xi Jinping meets Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders at the latest Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan.","From there, Xi heads Tuesday to Egypt, a longtime U.S. security partner and home to the bank Washington is now targeting. Beijing is steadily expanding its footprint around the Suez Canal and its military ties with Cairo, including through joint air exercises . China\u2019s foreign ministry says relations with Egypt are now \u201c at their best in history ,\u201d a reminder that the same governments Washington is leaning on to isolate Iran are cultivating Beijing as an alternative.","In the end, there is a limit to how far Washington can take its strategy without running into Beijing. It can bomb the Iranian minelayers, close the regime\u2019s dollar conduits and use Venezuelan oil to reduce Tehran\u2019s economic leverage. Fully squeezing the Iranian regime, though, would require confronting the Chinese banks that sustain Iran\u2019s oil trade, which would open a much larger fight just weeks before Xi\u2019s high-stakes talks with Trump in Washington on Sept. 24.","QUOTE OF THE DAY","In fact, everyone has a breaking point. Iran thought it had found Trump\u2019s. Trump may yet find theirs. It\u2019s too early to call.","\u2014 Brett McGurk, former senior U.S. national security official, arguing that the balance of leverage in the Iran war may be shifting slightly toward Washington.","Gulf Watch","UAE Backs Sanctions as Other Gulf States Hedge","A worker carries a U.S. flag into a meeting room ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 21, 2017. Reuters / Jonathan Ernst","Gulf states are reacting unevenly to Washington\u2019s new sanctions as Iran threatens retaliation against countries that help enforce them. The UAE had already suspended trade and financial dealings with Iran before Bessent unveiled the latest campaign, while Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain have so far been more cautious about publicly joining the U.S. economic offensive.","Their calculations vary sharply. Emirati officials say Iranian attacks have made continued commerce a security risk, while Oman still wants to preserve its role as a mediator and Qatar is keeping political channels open. But Gulf banks and companies face a harder constraint: Doing business with Iran could now cost them access to the U.S. dollar and the wider international financial system.","That leaves Washington with a lot of influence, but it isn\u2019t clear whether that will translate into political alignment. Gulf governments may comply economically while still resisting a full diplomatic break with Tehran, especially as Hormuz remains contested and Iran continues to threaten retaliation against countries that join the campaign.","Read the full story here","Syria Watch","U.S. Bets on Syria as Russia Ties Endure","President Trump meets Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa days after his removal from the US terrorism blacklist / AFP.","The Trump administration is betting that ending Syria\u2019s decades-long international isolation will pull Damascus further from Moscow and Tehran. It removed Syria from the U.S. terrorism blacklist last week, only for President Ahmed al-Sharaa to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin two days later about deepening ties and preserving Russia\u2019s military presence in Syria.","Washington says Sharaa has done enough to justify the gamble but much of the case also rests on what he has promised to do next. The U.S. State Department says Damascus has offered written assurances on terrorism and made further commitments on American regional priorities, while warning that Washington still \u201cmaintains numerous options, including sanctions authorities\u201d if it backslides.","Russia and Israel remain the clearest tests. Sharaa has reduced Moscow\u2019s privileged position and agreed to cut Russian oil imports, but has not expelled Russian forces completely. Washington is effectively wagering that engagement can pull Syria further westward over time, a process that it hopes would culminate in an eventual security deal with Jerusalem.","Read the full story here","Lebanon Watch","Unwelcome Iranian Ambassador May Stay in Lebanon","Lebanon declared Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sheibani persona non grata in March.","Lebanon\u2019s effort to curb Iranian influence has run into an awkward test. Beirut declared Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sheibani persona non grata in March and stripped him of his diplomatic status. But the Lebanese government now appears prepared to let him remain in the country as a private resident.","That would blunt the force of a decision originally meant to reassert Lebanese sovereignty. After Sheibani was accused of interfering in domestic politics and holding unauthorized meetings, Iran refused to recall him and Hezbollah and the Shia Amal movement fiercely opposed his expulsion.","That put the government in what some see as an absurd dilemma. \u201cIf the state withdrew his accreditation and declared him persona non grata, it makes no sense for it to later grant him residency,\u201d legal analyst Amin Mohammad Bashir told MBN.","The dispute goes beyond the diplomat. It is another measure of whether Beirut can translate its tougher posture toward Tehran and Hezbollah into enforceable state authority, or whether political pressure at home hollows out its decisions.","Read the full story here","Iraq Watch","U.S. Rejects Iraqi Compromise on Militia Weapons","Basra Operations Command Headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces.","Washington is pushing back against Baghdad\u2019s search for a face-saving compromise with the many Iran-aligned militias in the country. A U.S. official told MBN that the factions must surrender their weapons to the central government, not just transfer them to the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces.","That puts the United States at odds with a proposal gaining traction in Baghdad, where some political leaders want the PMF to collect and store militia weapons ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline for disarmament and U.S. withdrawal. The arrangement would let the government claim progress while allowing armed groups to avoid appearing to capitulate under American pressure.","The U.S. position narrows Baghdad\u2019s room to maneuver. With Tehran urging factions to resist full disarmament and some Iraqi officials already discussing a delay to the deadline, the coming month will test whether Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi can satisfy Washington without provoking conflict at home.","Read the full story here"],"audio_source_url":null,"author":"Alex Willemyns","available_dubs":[],"downloadable_assets":[],"duration_display":"0:00","duration_seconds":null,"embed_url":null,"id":14146,"image_caption":null,"image_url":"https://i0.wp.com/alhurra.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026-08-19T143103Z_702194656_RC2PZMAOUIBH_RTRMADP_3_IRAN-CRISIS-USA-CARRIER.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","is_clip":false,"is_youtube_embed":false,"item_type":"article","item_type_label":"Article","language_label":"English","media_credit":"Alex Willemyns","micro_label":"Photo","micro_label_kind":"gallery","network_label":"Alhurra","network_logo_url":"/static/uploads/direct_network_logos/alhurra_d529a7a850f2.png","published_at":"2026-09-01T01:31:06","published_at_display":"1 Sep 2026, 01:31 GMT","sequence_badge_label":null,"sequence_count":null,"sequence_count_label":null,"sequence_frames":[],"sequence_kind":null,"source_name":"alhurra","source_name_label":"Alhurra","source_type":"scrape","summary":"Follow our flagship MBN news sites in Arabic and English for the latest updates. If you prefer to read the Agenda in Arabic, click here. And if the MBN Agenda was forwarded to you, please subscribe. In this week\u2019s MBN Agenda: Washington is trying to turn the Iran war into a contest of economic leverage [\u2026]","title":"Hormuz, Venezuela and Xi","topic":"MBN Agenda","translation_language":"","url":"https://alhurra.com/en/36869","video_url":null,"youtube_conversion_active":false,"youtube_conversion_error":"","youtube_conversion_status":""}],"next_num":null,"page":1,"pages":1,"per_page":20,"prev_num":null,"total":1}