The Middle East is once again speaking in the language of pressure, grief and unfinished power. Iran’s streets, its nuclear sites and its diplomacy have all fractured at the same time, producing a moment that feels less like a crisis than a reckoning. What is unfolding is not only about Tehran’s survival or Saudi Arabia’s ambition; it is about whether the region can still generate its own gravity, or whether it will continue to drift at the mercy of external shocks. Iran’s domestic unrest since late 2025 is unprecedented in both scale and symbolism. Protests cutting across all 31 provinces, chants directly targeting the supreme leader, and an officially acknowledged death toll approaching the 2,500 mark, a rupture deeper than […]