Amid escalating unrest in Yemen's southern cities, Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s internationally recognized PLC, called for a conference in Riyadh to defuse the crisis, inviting all southern forces, including the UAE-backed separatist STC militia.

The clash between two of Washington’s central allies in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has unsettled long-standing U.S. calculations that reduced the Yemeni crisis to the Houthi threat alone, a narrow security lens shared by "Israel" and focused largely on shipping lanes and strategic interests.

Tensions between Iran and the Gulf states have spiked sharply in the wake of a GCC summit in Manama, where member countries renewed their call for Tehran to end its “occupation” of the three Emirati islands.

As part of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Gulf tour, which included Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman and resulted in the signing of 24 agreements, declarations, and joint statements across various fields, Al-Estiklal spoke with two Turkish academics about the visit’s broader implications.

Tunisian leftist activist Ezzedine Hazgui said the country’s hopes now rest with its youth to confront President Kais Saied’s growing authoritarianism and revive the spirit of the revolution, expressing confidence in their ability to reclaim Tunisia’s democratic path.