Middle Orient

In a tense exchange, Iran’s top diplomat has accused Paris of being intentionally confrontational while his French counterpart piled pressure on Iran over the detention of French nationals. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Wednesday that France was meddling in his country’s affairs and taking a confrontational approach toward the …

While Finland seems one step closer to NATO membership after Helsinki’s decision to resume defense sales to Turkey, Ankara’s anger at Sweden shows no signs of abating. Finland lifted on Wednesday a nearly three-year-long arms embargo on Turkey in a fresh move aimed to facilitate Helsinki’s entry to NATO, while …

Questions raised this week about the December shooting of Sinan Ates have placed Erdogan’s allied MHP party under the spotlight as elections loom. The murder of a prominent Turkish nationalist nearly a month ago has cast a shadow over politics, with the scandal threatening to engulf the ruling party’s ally …

To maximize the opportunity for the Turkish public to come to the polls… President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan brought forward the election date from an originally scheduled June 18 to May 14. Erdoğan’s treatment — through a judiciary totally under his control — of one of his potential rivals, Istanbul’s Mayor …

Many believe Ankara can be mollified — at a cost — but rejection of the Nordic countries’ ascension remains a real possibility. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is set to meet his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken in Washington this week. There are scant expectations among observers that the visit will …

While not analogous to Ukraine, recent American combat experiences can be informative as we consider sending advanced systems to Kyiv. There are a host of reasons, backed by historical examples, why sending more and more advanced weapons into Ukraine will not be a panacea. In fact, sending them might boomerang …

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned the Dutch envoy in Türkiye’s capital Ankara after the leader of an Islamophobic far-right group desecrated Islam’s holy book, the Quran, the second such instance that took place in Western Europe this week that threatens to deepen the strain with the broader Muslim world. …

European foreign ministers have added 37 names to the list of Iranian individuals and entities subject to sanctions, but did not call for designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist group. European Foreign Ministers agreed Monday on a fourth round of sanctions against 37 Iranian nationals and entities over …

The Iraqi economy is suffering from the US dollar’s rise as a result of smuggling dollars outside of Iraq. As Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani entered Basra Stadium on Thursday to attend the final game of the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup, hundreds of Iraqis chanted, “Bring the dollar price down.” …

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has become a key escape route for an unknown number of Iranian Kurds fleeing brutal repression and torture in Iran, but most fail to find security and stability in Iraq. Since his release from an Iranian prison a month ago, Kayvan Samadi has been hiding …