Middle Orient

Security will be at top of agenda for US-Iraq Strategic Dialogue today, and when US President Joe Biden hosts Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on July 26. US and Iraqi officials are preparing a statement that will likely mention a time frame for the withdrawal of American “combat troops” from …

Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met Iran’s President-elect Ebrahim Raisi to discuss bilateral relations. Qatar’s foreign minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani travelled to Tehran for an unannounced visit and met top officials, days after visiting Washington, Iran’s state news agency reported. IRNA said that Al Thani, who …

US President Joe Biden will welcome Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi to the Oval Office on Monday, where the two leaders will discuss the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq to officially end its combat mission there. Some 2,500 US troops still remain in Iraq as part of an …

Protesters in oil-rich Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran want clean drinking water, among other things. Iran’s supreme leader praised the people of Khuzestan province Friday in an apparent response to continuing protests in the impoverished region. “The people of Khuzestan are very loyal,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a tweet. …

Eight migrants are still missing after their boat bound for Italy sunk southwest of the Turkish town of Kas. Search-and-rescue operations are underway in the Aegean Sea after a boat carrying 45 migrants sank off the southern coast of Turkey, Greek and Turkish officials said Friday. The state-run Anadolu Agency …

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein made the remarks ahead of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s visit to Washington on Monday. Iraq still needs support from the US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Friday amid reports the Biden administration is planning to withdraw combat troops …

Iran’s dilapidated gas infrastructure has limited its transfers to Iraq, adding to Iraq’s own energy crisis. Iraqi parliamentary sources said on July 21 political conflicts are “preventing the investment of natural gas in the Mansouriya field in the Diyala governorate (north of Baghdad). The field’s resources are enough to meet …

Missiles fired from two Israeli fighter jets were reportedly downed by Syrian air defense systems on Sunday while trying to target the Damascus governorate, Russian media has reported. “From 05:40 a.m. to 05:54 a.m., two F-16 tactical fighter jets of the Israeli Air Force, which stayed outside Syria’s airspace, delivered …

At the White House on Monday, the Iraqi leader needs a guarantee that Biden won’t use Iraq’s independence as a pawn in negotiations with Iran. At a military parade in Baghdad in late June, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi saluted the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of largely Iranian-backed …

The re-election of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad illustrates the failure of Western policy thus far to achieve meaningful political change in Syria. Russia and Iran have benefitted strategically from their respective military support of the Assad government. The July 2021 renewal of a UN cross-border aid mechanism to opposition-held …