Bushehr facility taken off power grid for a number of days; national electricity company calls on Iranians to minimize consumption during peak hours Iran’s southern Bushehr nuclear power plant has been temporarily shut down over a “technical fault,” the country’s atomic energy body said in a statement. “Following a technical …
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Iran’s Raisi says won’t meet Biden or negotiate on missiles, support for proxies
In first press conference since win, president-elect says the Islamic Republic will continue to be ‘a defender of the oppressed people including the Palestinians’ Iran’s president-elect said Monday he wouldn’t meet with US President Joe Biden, nor negotiate over Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support of regional terror groups, …
Read More »Does Kurdish jihadist group threaten Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in north Syria?
Ansar al-Islam is a Kurdish Salafist and jihadist group operating in the Kurdistan mountains in northern Iraq all the way to Latakia in Syria, fighting against the Syrian government. Ansar al-Islam is considered a Salafist-jihadist movement seeking to establish an “Islamic state” according to its own vision and Islamic governance …
Read More »Hamas leader says Marwan Barghouti a priority for next prisoner swap with Israel
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh promises the wife of prominent Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti that her husband will be a priority for the next swap deal with Israel. A prominent Hamas leader told Al-Monitor that the movement’s chief, Ismail Haniyeh, promised Fadwa al-Barghouti, the wife of senior Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghouti, …
Read More »Egypt plans to resettle millions in Sinai amid anti-terrorism operations
Egypt announced a plan to attract 3 million Egyptians with the aim of resettling them in the Sinai Peninsula, as part of a more comprehensive plan to reconstruct Sinai and fight terrorism. The Egyptian army has yet to officially announce the end of the anti-terrorism operation it launched in the …
Read More »Egypt mobilizes Arab support in Nile dam dispute with Ethiopia
The foreign ministers of the Arab League called on the UN Security Council to urgently convene and discuss the dispute over Ethiopia’s controversial dam on the Nile River. A few days before Ethiopia starts the second-round filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, scheduled for July 1, Egypt has once …
Read More »Islamic State revives religious police in northeast Syria
The Islamic State’s religious police are back at work in the areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria. The Islamic State’s religious police — known as Hesba — has made a comeback in the areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast …
Read More »Turkey wild card in US-Russia conflict over Syria aid
The US administration might be open to a position shift on the Syrian file to secure the flow of cross-border international aid to Syria, a prospect that may spoil Turkey’s calculations in Syria and particularly in Idlib. Although humanitarian aid to Syria was hardly a top agenda item during President …
Read More »Iran’s Iraq policy unlikely to change under Raisi
Despite his hardline credentials, Iran’s foreign policy is likely to remain unified under the new president. Ebrahim Raisi was elected as the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran on June 19. The official inauguration will take place in early August. How will the relationship between Iran and Iraq …
Read More »Raisi says Iran will prioritize improving regional relations
The president-elect said Iran wants “interaction with the world” and called on US President Joe Biden to lift all sanctions. Days after his landslide victory, Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday that his new government will focus on engagement with regional neighbors. “Iran wants interaction with the world,” Raisi …
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