Middle Orient

Guns, ammunition and banknotes seized in raid on ⁠’terrorist hideout’ after deadly attack on US troops Syria announced on Sunday it had dismantled an ISIS cell in a Damascus suburb and arrested seven people, as part of a move to step up operations against ⁠the group after a deadly attack …

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says move aimed at ‘burying’ idea of Palestinian state Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has advanced plans to build a settlement in the E1 area surrounding East Jerusalem and derail the creation of a Palestinian state. The minister said on Thursday he would approve tenders …

Israeli cabinet voted to grant 19 settlements legal status on Friday The expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level since at least 2017, when the UN began tracking the data. In 2025, “plans for nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or tendered, …

Israel’s security cabinet has approved 19 more settlements in the occupied West Bank, bringing the number granted permission the past three years to 69. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, revealed the latest proposal had been passed after pushing it through the cabinet. Mr Smotrich openly says the new …

Internal Security Forces affiliated with Syria’s Interior Ministry, working with the General Intelligence Directorate, carried out what the ministry described as a well coordinated security operation in Daraya, southwest of Damascus, on Sunday, 21 December, targeting an Islamic State group site. The operation led to the arrest of the cell …

The Druze community in Syria now faces a severe trial that threatens its very existence and destiny. This ordeal has arisen from the convergence of three intertwined and contradictory factors. The first is the emergence of a new authority in Damascus, one with a jihadist-Salafi background that embraces narrow sectarian …

Beneath the surface of unity, Gulf royals are locked in a quiet contest for dominance – testing the limits of US oversight and reshaping alliances on their own terms. Amid rising friction between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the balance of power in southern Yemen, Qatari Emir Tamim bin …

Europe’s belated recognition of Palestinian statehood is a naked geopolitical maneuver – part of a wider normalization push that sidelines Palestinian liberation, while repackaging defeat as diplomatic progress. Are we witnessing the birth of a state? Or the declaration of its defeat? Since its inception in 1948, Israel has never …

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said talks with the United States over integrating the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the Syrian army are still ongoing, stressing that integration is inevitable. Answering journalists’ questions on Saturday, 20 December 2025, during the ministry’s annual end of year activities evaluation meeting, Guler said …

JERUSALEM—Israel’s government is privately pressing President Donald Trump’s administration to set a deadline for international troops to disarm Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to three Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Israeli leaders expect the International Stabilization Force to begin deploying to Gaza early next year as …