Middle Orient

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s attempted insurrection against the Russian Ministry of Defence (MOD) last month created massive confusion. The rebellion raised many questions about what might come next for the war in Ukraine and the future of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. Other important questions pertain to the Wagner Group’s ‘March of …

Iran becoming a full member of the China and Russia-led SCO may be more symbolic than beneficial, but could help Iran nonetheless amid international isolations, sanctions and shifting regional dynamics. Iran’s admission to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) this week further aligns the Islamic Republic with Russia and China, though …

Destroyed homes, cars, streets and memorials pepper Jenin refugee camp as Israel pulls out. But so does defiance. Waled Rashed Mansour’s arm is blue where an Israeli military dog attacked him, the memory as raw as the wound. “They came into our home, they blew up the doors,” the 65-year-old …

Turkey said its latest ban is in response to “the intensification of activities by the PKK terrorist organization in Sulaimaniyah.” Turkey on Monday extended a flight ban to Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaimaniyah International Airport for six months, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials confirmed, in a move that will further squeeze the …

In an apparent jab at Sweden and the United States, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country wouldn’t cave to “veiled threats.” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan amped up the rhetoric against Stockholm on Monday with merely days left before the critical meeting between Turkish, NATO and Swedish officials over …

The League of Arab States welcomed President Bashar al-Assad to its May summit, reinstating Syria’s membership, which it had suspended in 2011. The regime may look to have shrugged off the international opprobrium it earned for its brutality in repressing its opponents. But has it? When Arab countries admitted Syria …

West Asia (the Middle East), known in contemporary history as a region in perpetual geopolitical flux has recently been home to some of the most significant diplomatic rapprochements. To begin with, the resumption of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered by China, normalised relations between Riyadh and Tehran— …

In Istanbul, Tajik citizen Shamil Hukumatov, one of the leaders of the Khorasan cell of the Islamic State (IS-Khorasan) group, was arrested. Turkish media on June 22 reported that Hukumatov, also known as “Abu Miskin.” engaged in the recruitment of new militants for IG-Khorasan. Shamil Hukumatov was detained on Thursday …

The PKK’s recruitment of new members from Europe is under the spotlight again as a man who surrendered reveals that he joined the terrorist group in France and stayed in a Greek camp before being enrolled in their bloody campaign in northern Iraq Confessions of a PKK terrorist who chose …

The Iraqi forces in Kirkuk on Sunday announced that they had killed five suspected ISIS militants in an operation, according to a press release. Wearing “explosive belts”, three members of the group were killed in the Turkalan area in southwestern Kirkuk by the Iraqi Army’s Eighth Division soldiers, a statement …