Hormuz as a Mirror of a New Era: Why Trump Suddenly Halted “Project Freedom”

Amid rising risks of escalation around Iran and across the wider Middle East, a less visible but strategically significant dynamic is taking shape. Azerbaijan — a country traditionally associated with energy and geopolitical balancing — is gradually emerging in a new role: that of a humanitarian transit hub.

In this context, analysts are turning their attention to Afghanistan, which could become a key link in a new route bypassing Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. However, active development and use of this route are constrained by the Taliban’s limited capacity to enable Afghanistan to play such a role.

United Arab Emirates has announced its withdrawal from OPEC from 1 may, a move that analysts say reflects a combination of economic priorities, geopolitical recalibration and growing tensions within the producer group, and could have far-reaching implications for oil prices and the cohesion of the broader OPEC+ alliance.

For several years, Russia has steadily expanded its presence across Africa, stepping into the vacuum left by Western powers and offering military support to governments facing international isolation, often without political conditions. Yet the events unfolding in Mali over recent days suggest that this strategy may be encountering deeper constraints than previously assumed.