Middle Orient

Is the community a purveyor of revolutionary change, a defender of the status quo, or a combination of both? We are in the Muslim month of Muharram, a time of mourning for Shia Muslims, when they commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. Over the centuries, rituals during Muharram have been …

Islamic State sleeper cells have regularly attacked government forces in central and eastern Syria despite losing the last of their territory in 2019. Suspected Islamic State militants attacked a Syrian military convoy in the Syrian desert overnight on Monday, resulting in the death of five government soldiers and the injury …

Belarus may start playing a bigger role in Russia’s use of Iranian drones in the war on Ukraine. Iran and Belarus signed a defense agreement on Monday, furthering cooperation between the two countries that now involves Shahed drones production that Russia has deployed in its war in Ukraine. Iranian Defense …

In the first visit of its kind in a decade, Egypt’s trade and industry minister traveled to Turkey on Tuesday. During a visit to Ankara, the first in a decade, Egypt’s Trade and Industry Minister Ahmed Samir Saleh and his Turkish counterpart Omer Bolat, announced Tuesday that they would seek …

The moniker often given to Iran, that of being the quintessential “survivalist state”, is not without merit. With both its highs and lows, Tehran has been at odds with the US since the 1979 revolution, and yet maintained a level of stability despite all challenges. Since then, Iran has on …

A high-ranking member of the PKK terrorist group was “neutralized” by Turkish intelligence, security sources said Friday. Photos shared on media outlets showed a charred car in which the target was apparently traveling in Iraq’s north. The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) determined that Zagros Cekdar, code-named “Mesut Celal Osman,” forcefully …

Turkish anti-terror police raid 8 districts across the city to arrest suspects identified as ‘foreign terrorist fighters,’ say security sources Turkish security forces arrested 16 foreign nationals for their alleged links to the Daesh/ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorist organizations, security sources said on Thursday. Istanbul police anti-terror teams launched an operation …

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is in a parlous state. Its standing with the Palestinian population has sunk to new low levels, while it has lost authority to more extremist groups in large parts of the West Bank. Voices from within Israel’s defense and security establishment have been warning for months …

Since the countries of Central Asia gained independence in 1991, the Arab world has devoted most of its attention to the region promoting the revival of Islam and thereby promoting the fundamentalist Islam characteristic of much of the Arab East. The effort has prompted the West to oppose Arab involvement …

The Islamic Republic has been asking to be admitted into the BRICS group [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] club since 2010 when the “Supreme Guide” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced his intention to create a “New World Order” through a triple alliance of Iran, China and Russia. Tehran sources say …