Middle Orient

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia on 7 December 2022 has marked a turning point in Beijing’s foreign policy towards the Persian Gulf states. This three-day trip included three summits: One with President Xi and the Saudi Crown Prince on behalf of King Salman; a second between China and the …

The US Treasury Department designated four individuals and two entities accused of enabling the terrorist group’s recruitment and financial transfers. The US Treasury Department on Thursday designated what it described as a Turkey-based financial network of the Islamic State (IS) that moved funds to and from Syria and Iraq.  In …

Iranian leaders are considering the possibility of offering concessions while simultaneously escalating their crackdown against protesters in an effort to quell the three-month-old uprising. Hardliners in the regime believe that executing protesters will cause the woman-led unrest to subside.Regime moderates have criticized the executions and seek to end enforcement of …

After a bloody war that saw hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced over a decade, Syria has been effectively divided into spheres of influence and de facto protectorates controlled by regional and international powers. Foremost among these has been Iran, which has come to exert huge influence not only …

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday announced the arrest of several Islamic State (ISIS) suspects during a recently-launched operation against the group in northeast Syria (Rojava). The SDF on Thursday announced a new anti-ISIS mission dubbed Operation al-Jazeera Thunderbolt, targeting the terror group’s hotspots in northeast Syria’s al-Hol …

Turkey’s security establishment remains immutably opposed to the consolidation of any form of Kurdish autonomy in Syria that would mirror Kurdish gains in neighboring Iraq. Turkey’s overtures to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with last week’s meeting in Moscow between the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers, continue to …

Syrians are speaking out against a potential Turkish-Syrian rapprochement, with opposition-held areas holding vigils and protests across Aleppo and Idlib governorates. Protesters held a vigil in Idlib on Tuesday in protest of the Turkish rapprochement with the Syrian government. Protests have been taking place across different Syrian cities in Aleppo …

Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, asked the international community and the Muslim world to stand with the people of Afghanistan following a meeting with Afghan Shiites. A group of Shiite clerics from Afghanistan met with Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, this week, as he urged the …

Local militias have resumed threatening the US presence in Iraq this week, leaving Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani in a difficult position. Sudani was nominated by the Coordination Framework, a bloc that includes Iran-backed militant groups and allied political groups. The alliance provides essential political support to Sudani who relies …

The Cradle has previously deconstructed the Pentagon’s online bot and troll operations targeting Iran. These wide-ranging efforts, over many years, sought to destabilize the Iranian government by disseminating and inciting negative sentiment against it, on a variety of social media platforms.