Middle Orient

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said Tehran is prepared to equip the Syrian military forces with sophisticated weapons and open “strategic defense gear” factories in the Arab country. The Iranian defense minister, who was accompanying the Iranian president during a visit to Syria last week, held a …

Introduction Seven months after the start of the nationwide uprising in Iran, there can be no doubt about the Iranian people’s deep-seated discontent toward the current theocratic regime that has ruled the country for four decades. The protests have brought to the surface the profound frustration and rage that has …

With Syria’s re-admittance, Assad is now expected to attend the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19. Syria was readmitted to the Arab League on Sunday. The move marks a major milestone for the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad as it seeks to come in from the cold, …

The changes in the global balance of power, and in particular, the challenges posed by a rising China, have made it necessary for Washington to shift more diplomatic and economic resources from the Atlantic to the Pacific. America’s allies in Europe have to assume that under any projected scenario in …

Iranian workers… have launched a series of strikes and sit-ins to protest what they regard as “systemic exploitation.” By the time of this writing, over 100,000 workers were on strike in 122 businesses in 35 cities, relatively small numbers yet significant for two reasons: the protests seem to be spreading …

India-Iran relations have a deep civilizational background and need to be viewed outside the framework of daily politics and current trends such as anti-government protests in Iran, India-Pakistan conflict and constant geopolitical realignments: India maintains good relations with both East and West, and Iran is under attack western sanctions. In …

The presidents of Iran and Syria signed a comprehensive agreement on long-term and strategic cooperation between the two countries in Damascus. The “comprehensive plan for strategic and long-term cooperation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Syrian Arab Republic” was signed by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Syrian …

In March 2023, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations, with China playing a role as the host of the talks. This generated considerable discussion among policymakers and the scholarly community. Some believed this indicated a new change in China’s approach to the Middle East, which has primarily …

Islamist parties are falling out of favor across the region, as leaders hope to offer economic benefits combined with authoritarianism. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, facing a difficult election on May 14, announced on April 30 that Turkish intelligence had killed Abu Hussein al-Quraishi — the latest self-styled “Islamic State …

Belgium police have arrested an Iraqi immigrant suspected of belonging to an al-Qaeda cell that carried out deadly car bombings in Baghdad in 2009-2010, prosecutors said Friday. The man, identified by the initials O.Y.T., born in 1979, was detained on Wednesday when police raided an address near the city of …