Middle Orient

“Our allies in the Gulf no longer honor the deal that was made decades ago even though we still have a big physical military presence in the Gulf, bigger than ever before, and we keep giving Gulf nations a pass on human rights violations. Too often our Middle East allies …

Did Lebanon’s US-backed army commander exploit the Syrian refugee crisis and incite clashes with them to catapult himself into the highly-contested Lebanese presidency? The US silence on Joseph Aoun’s illegal deportations last week is deafening. Since the 2011 outbreak of war in Syria, hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians have …

Terror group has ‘extensive work in Sweden to raise money and finance terrorist activities aimed at Türkiye,’ admits Foreign Minister Billstrom STOCKHOLM The Swedish foreign minister has admitted that the PKK terrorist organization’s extensive activities in his country are the reason Türkiye is preventing Sweden from joining NATO, an intergovernmental …

Rasim Akyol, a fugitive member of the PKK terrorist group, was brought to Türkiye after being captured by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in an unspecified country, security sources told media outlets Friday. Photos shared by security sources show Akyol at an undisclosed location between two Turkish flags. Akyol was …

With Russia’s resources focused on the war in Ukraine, Moscow’s foreign policy may play second fiddle. While changes to Russia’s approach to the MENA region are ones of nuance rather than substance, Russia’s move towards the personalisation and regionalisation of its foreign policy there means that individuals and institutions will …

On November 30, 2022, the Islamic State’s spokesman Abu ‘Umar al-Muhajir made the somewhat surprising announcement that the group’s “caliph” and leader Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi had been killed, while adding that the group’s Shura council had agreed on a successor going by the name of Abu al-Hussayn al-Hussayni al-Qurashi.1 …

At least 126 politicians, journalists, lawyers and artists have been detained in an operation that observers call an intimidation tactic before the May 14 elections. More than 120 people were detained across Turkey on Tuesday in an alleged counter-terrorism operation that targeted mainly Kurdish politicians, journalists, lawyers and artists less …

The US House of Representatives passed legislation last month to include the Middle East and North Africa as a category in the Uniform Racial Classification Act, which requires state agencies to compile and report statistical data using racial classifications, thus effectively defining which groups are recognized and which are not. …

China’s role in mediating peace between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia may resonate in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. In a recent visit to Beijing, French President Emmanuel Macron encouraged China to play a role in winding down the conflict in Ukraine. In late March, the European Union’s top diplomat …

For the first time in twenty years, a change of leadership in Turkey is possible. The EU must be prepared for the foreign policy shift an opposition victory would bring. Whether in the first round on May 14 or the second on May 28, Turkey’s presidential election will ultimately be …