Middle Orient

Qatar’s investment in Iraq’s energy sector has the potential to transform Persian Gulf geo-economic dynamics, but Iraq’s political instability continues to pose major risks for large investors across the board. According to recent media reports, regional energy giant QatarEnergy is looking to make a significant move into the Iraqi oil …

Russia asked Iraq’s government to reopen its airspace to the Russian military, which wants to transport troops and equipment to its bases in eastern Syria, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported on 29 March. According to a diplomat and Iraqi officials who spoke with MEE, the Russian-Syrian air corridor through Iraqi …

Bruno Lafont says the French intelligence service was behind the decision to continue operations in Syria and pay off ‘terrorist groups’ like ISIS In an interview with Liberation published on 31 March, Bruno Lafont, the former CEO of Lafarge, accused French intelligence of having infiltrated the company in Syria, where …

Sudan’s relations with Israel have vacillated between periods of hostility and outreach. Today, Khartoum’s leaders view these ties as a means to gain international legitimacy, while Tel Aviv aims to eliminate Khartoum as a haven for pro-Iran and Palestinian resistance factions. Unlike most Arab countries whose relations with Israel have …

The silence from Iran is deafening. Judging by social media reactions and media reports from Iran, few, if any, members of the Iranian public seem to care that, since 2011, the Israeli air force has attacked Iranian and Iranian-affiliated positions in Syria on more than a thousand occasions. More surprisingly, …

The recent agreement to restore diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran raised hope among Western leaders and some Yemen watchers that it could help bring an end to the war in Yemen, in which Tehran and Riyadh back opposing sides. Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, who …

The trend lines in US-Iran relations today make for grim reading in Washington. Faced with unrelenting US pressure, Iran’s leaders are regularly meeting with Russian and Chinese officials and pledging unprecedented levels of cooperation. Iran’s nuclear program recently crossed a key threshold into production of weapons-grade uranium. American policymakers today …

After Tehran , Damascus : according to Saudi state TV Al Ekhbariya , citing sources in the Foreign Ministry , the al-Saud monarchy is in the process of re-establishing diplomatic relations with Bashar Al Assad ‘s Syria , a few days after the news of a similar rapprochement between Riyadh …

Tehran has been counterfeiting foreign weapons for decades and is said to be receiving a bonanza from Ukraine In December 2011, a US RQ-170 Sentinel drone went missing in airspace close to the Iran-Afghanistan border. The Sentinel resurfaced on Iranian TV days later, where it was paraded as a “very …

The late March clashes between U.S. and Iran-backed militia forces in eastern Syria upended U.S. hopes that an Iran-Saudi rapprochement would usher in a period of regional stability and raised the potential for expanded U.S.-Iran hostilities.Iran’s alignment with Russia, and the willingness of the Arab Gulf states to engage with …