Middle Orient

Summary:Syria’s northwest has been progressively transformed into a de facto canton outside the control of the Syrian state. This is the outcome of a dynamic process that began in 2016 and that mainly reflected the security interests of Türkiye, Russia, Iran, and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This …

Turkey continued to bomb infrastructure in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled region after a US F-16 shot down a drone that encroached within half a kilometer of a US base. Turkish drones conducted multiple strikes within a kilometer of a US base in northeast Syria on Thursday, causing US troops to take shelter …

The US readout of a call between the top US and Turkish diplomats stressed the two countries share a common objective of defeating terror. Turkey expanded its air campaign against Kurdish autonomous zones in Syria and Iraq on Friday, even as senior Biden administration officials held calls with their counterparts …

Seventy-five years since the establishment of the Jewish state, Israel has found itself facing a relentless, unprecedentedly severe political crisis with profound national security implications exacerbated by separate regional developments. Domestically, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms prompted multiple weeks-long waves of massive street protests, to the extent that former …

The US and Turkiye held high-level talks on Friday to de-escalate growing tension in northeast Syria between the two NATO allies. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken a day after a US fighter jet shot down a Turkish combat drone that was targeting …

Turkish warplanes launched a new round of airstrikes against Kurdish militant targets in Iraq on Wednesday hours after the foreign minister warned that Turkey would hit the militant group’s positions in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Ankara earlier this week. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, …

A new trend is emerging in the Israeli hasbara discourse targeting Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims: women’s rights. The word ‘new’ is not exactly accurate. The misuse of the genuine struggle for women’s rights in the Arab and Muslim world is only new insofar as the increasing reliance on the tactic …

The Turkish Defense Ministry said 16 new targets, including caves, bunkers and warehouses in the northern Iraqi regions of Metina, Hakurk, Gara, Qandil and Assos, were destroyed in the strikes. Turkey carried out on Tuesday fresh airstrikes in five northern Iraqi regions in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Ankara …

High-level and open threats by Turkey have ramped up fears of a fresh escalation in northern Syria between Turkish forces and Syrian Kurdish groups that Ankara deems terrorists. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants’ facilities and infrastructure in Syria and Iraq are “legitimate targets” for …

All facilities and activities of terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq will be “legitimate targets” for Turkey, Ankara’s defense minister Yasar Guler said. “First of all, we want everyone to know that all facilities and activities of the PKK/KCK, PYD/YPG in Syria and Iraq will be our legitimate target from …