Within the space of a few months, Iranian proxies and allies in Iraq and Lebanon suffered significant setbacks in parliamentary elections. Some commentators have ventured that the era of Tehran’s hegemony may be over. While it is hard to predict the final outcome of these electoral shifts, such hopes might be premature.

The Human Rights Council of the United Nations released “Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions,” by Special Rapporteur Prof. Dr. Agnès S. Callamard, which holds that the successful drone strike in January killing Gen. Soleimani violated international law.

Three years after Obama finalized the Iran deal, President Trump withdrew the US, and today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid out a new and very ambitious path forward.

For now, the border between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights remains the most important border in the Middle East—a veritable dam holding back the tidal wave of Iranian ambition.