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Stacks of Iranian rials and US dollars sit on a table in Tehran, Iran, on August 6, 2025. (Getty Images)
Middle East
Middle East
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in a joint statement in the East Room of the White House on January 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
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Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (R) with Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as the new government is presented after the Iranian Revolution. (Photo by Alain Dejean/Sygma via Getty Images)
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Buildings damaged from fighting south of Tripoli, Libya, June 21.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C), wearing a protective face maks, speaks with his lawyer inside a courtroom at the district court of Jerusalem on May 24, 2020, during the first day of his corruption trial.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he delivers a speech following a cabinet meeting, in Ankara, on June 9, 2020.
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Mourners carry the coffins of slain Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and eight others during a funeral procession in Iraq on January 4, 2020. (Photo by MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Hagia Sophia, which was rebuilt for the final time in AD 537 during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. Until 1453, it served as the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
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Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends ''Vision 2023 Turkeys National Education Ministry'' meeting at Bestepe National Congress and Culture Center on October 23, 2018. ( Murat Kula/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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A Greek Orthodox church in Hama, Syria
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Protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square call for the ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in January 2011.
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Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan addresses the opening ceremony of the 2019 New Economy Forum in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 21, 2019
Experts
James Barnett
Research Fellow
Michael Doran
Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East
