While a direct confrontation between Tehran and Islamabad seems unlikely, things could escalate if Iran feels squeezed in the Levant.

Biden now has a hard choice to make: push Israel into a ceasefire in Gaza or risk a sustained Iran-backed escalation in the region

The more Israel's war on Gaza drags on, the more Nasrallah's speeches lose their value, and the more impotent Hezbollah appears.

Jordan's swift and tough military action has forced Damascus to address a problem it has long sought to ignore. Meanwhile, sources claim Iranian involvement in weapons smuggling.

An $8bn project in the Suez Canal Economic Zone shows Egypt's ambitions to become a global leader in green hydrogen. But with high set-up costs and a huge debt burden, Cairo can't yet go at it alone.

Friday's drone attack on one of Iraq's largest gas fields has led to a temporary suspension of production, resulting in major power cuts across the country's northern Kurdistan region.

'Telegram 29' shows Algeria's determination to win out in a bitter battle with Morocco to control lucrative trade flows in a vital strategic region at a time of wider turmoil

Without US military presence, the vice currently around the neck of IS in northeastern Syria would be loosened considerably, if not removed altogether.

Despite a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and the jailing and exile of many of its leaders, the spectre of an Islamist revival continues to loom in Egypt, 13 years after Mubarak's ouster.