Middle Orient News

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will have talks in Turkey on Nov. 21 as part of his trip including Morocco and Ukraine, according to diplomatic sources. The vice president will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime MinisterAhmet Davutoğlu and a number of nongovernmental representatives.

Kurdish forces blocked a road Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants use to resupply their forces in a Syrian town on the Turkish border, a town official and a monitoring group said on Nov. 12, the first major gain against the jihadists after weeks of violence. Iraqi-Kurdish …

Suspected Sunni militants struck in and around Baghdad today, killing 17 people including 11 soldiers and policemen, and injuring about 40 in three separate attacks, including two suicide bombings, according to police and hospital officials. The largest of today’s attacks was in the turbulent Youssifiyah district south of Baghdad where …

U.S and partner nation military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria from Friday through Monday using bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft to conduct 23 airstrikes, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced. Separately, U.S. and partner nation military forces conducted 18 airstrikes in Iraq during the same period using …

Visiting United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura headed Monday to Syria’s central city of Homs to meet with a delegation of armed militants in a rebel-held area there, sources and media reports said. The pro-government al-Watan daily said the envoy, who arrived in Syria on Saturday, will be …

Syrian President Bashar Assad says a ceasefire proposal for the embattled northern city of Aleppo, which has been raised by the U.N. envoy to the country, is “worth studying.” The official SANA news agency reported Assad’s remarks, saying they came during a meeting on Monday with the envoy, Staffan de …

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with United Nations special envoy to Iraq Nikolay Mladenov to discuss the current political and security situation in Iraq and efforts made to confront the extremist ‘Islamic State’ group, known as ISIS. During the meeting, Shoukry and Mladenov also discussed the steps done by …

United States President Obama is ordering up to 1,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), bringing the American force to more than 3,000 troops. In a statement issued Friday afternoon, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said the …

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari arrived in Turkey on Wednesday to meet with Turkish officials in order to boost bilateral ties and coordinate efforts to fight terrorism. Jaafari’s visit between Nov. 5 and 7 is at the invitation of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

The U.S.-led coalition fighting against Islamic jihadists in Iraq and Syria would benefit from Turkey’s permission to use its airbases, a U.S. commander has said. “When and if the Turks decide to be more forthcoming in helping the coalition, it will clearly be value-added,” Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. …