Al Majalla’s cover story last week examined emerging alternatives to the Hormuz Strait, as commercial shipping continues to be disrupted by the ongoing US-Iran standoff. We cover Saudi Arabia’s western coast and port of Yanbu, as well as a proposal to turn Syria into a regional oil and trade hub. For his part, Steve Hewitt looks at The tiny waterway that put the global economy into a chokehold. “Control of natural waterways, such as the Strait of Hormuz, represents not just economic clout but pure political power,” he explains.

Meanwhile, Abdulfattah Khattab predicts that, despite the truce, the economic effects of the Iran war will linger. “A two-week truce has sparked a cautious market rebound, but deep anxiety persists over renewed escalation and its impact on global growth and inflation,” he said. For his part, Mohamed Sharki looks at how The Iran war exposed the fragility of Europe’s economy. And Omer Onhon asks Can NATO survive the US-Iran war? after the UK and France said they would stay out of Trump's plan to blockade Iranian ports, in a move that angered Trump and further strained the alliance.

Meanwhile, Kamal Alam offers a behind-the-scenes look at the US-Iran negotiations held in Islamabad on 11 April, with his sources confirming that US Vice President JD Vance had successfully built a rapport with the Iranian delegation, but that talks were scuppled by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. For his part, Alex Vatanka asks Has Iran's ideology actually hardened? In his piece, he asserts that “The change in tone and presentation of policy isn't a fundamental redirection, but rather the consolidation of a system under pressure.”  

Onto Lebanon, and Ibrahim Hamidi opines that the Israel-Lebanon talks just might succeed, pointing to what he views as a changed domestic and regional landscape that allows Beirut control over its own affairs. For his part, Houssam Itani explains that Lebanon’s Shiites are fighting a two-front war. “The first is on the border against Israel, which seeks to seize their land and drive them northwards; the second is within Lebanon itself, against a state that seeks to marginalise them,” he says.

In Culture, Jaber Muhammad Madkahli pens a piece titled Farasan, the literature of the sea, and the poetics of place. In it, he says, “In these pristine Saudi islands, a generation of writers has drawn on life by the sea to produce a body of work shaped by memory, identity, and rapid change.” And finally, Hazem Massoud looks at the life and career of Egyptian filmmaker Daoud Abdel Sayed. “Throughout his career, the renowned director challenged authority, rejected easy answers, and remained rooted in lived experience," he explains.