Middle Orient

U.S. officials tasked with tracking Islamic State are seeing worrisome signs that the terror group’s core leadership is strengthening control over its global network of affiliates despite a series of key losses. Specifically, the United States is raising concerns about the group’s General Directorate of Provinces, a series of nine …

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is fond of stating “There is no Plan B” to emphasise the refusal to veer away from the two-state paradigm, over which there is international consensus. Yet Israeli colonialism in Palestine has rendered the two-state framework defunct. “Israel was established against a historical trend of mass …

In May, an investigation into the 1948 massacre of a Palestinian village carried out by Zionist militias revealed the locations of several new mass graves. The first-of-its-kind study has corroborated survivors’ testimonies and challenges longstanding Israeli denial of the killings. The investigation, carried out by human-rights-focused research group, Forensic Architecture, …

What lies behind Riyadh’s recent spate of diplomatic initiatives – and how likely are they to succeed? Over the past few months, Saudi Arabia has attracted international attention with one diplomatic initiative after another – from its beginning of normalisation with Iran, to peace talks with the Yemeni Houthis, to …

Despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad being welcomed back onto the international stage, all is not well at home. His country is broken into three parts, which, at best, are in a state of uneasy coexistence and at worst are stuck in a low-intensity active conflict. In the country’s northwestern Idlib …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkey’s new Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also touched upon bilateral relations and defense cooperation. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Turkey’s new Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday to congratulate him on his appointment, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. State Department …

President Erdogan’s new Cabinet so far reflects a shift to his reformist days — whether that plays out as such remains to be seen. Turkey’s flailing economy topped the agenda as the country’s new Cabinet convened Tuesday under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the first time since he won a …

A recent border clash between Iranian and Taliban forces marked the latest phase of a longstanding water rights dispute between the two countries. The fighting might upend Tehran’s relationship with Taliban leaders, which is already burdened by the Taliban’s brutal treatment of Shia Muslims and some Persian-speaking Afghan groups. Both …

Turkish shelling in northern Syria early Monday hit a vehicle killing one Russian soldier and wounding several others, Syrian Kurdish media and an opposition war monitor reported. Monday’s shelling came after a day of violence between U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters and Turkish troops in northern Syria left several dead on the …

Boastfully adding to its already massive stockpile of long-range projectiles, Tehran appeared headed for a fresh collision course with Israel and its Western adversaries, which remain unnerved by Iran’s missile program. Iran unveiled on Tuesday what it described as its first domestically developed hypersonic missile, pressing ahead with the controversial …