Middle Orient

The Iranian regime, which has long argued that it is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons… has lately changed its tone and is boasting that it currently has the ability to build a nuclear bomb. Biden’s new nuclear deal, if reached, will also allow Russia to cash in on a …

Local factions that include former members of the Free Syrian Army are fighting alleged Islamic State members in southern Syria’s Daraa with the support of the Syrian government. Battles resumed Nov. 4 between local factions supported by the Syrian government and Islamic State cells in the city of Daraa in …

Turkey is using the jihadis’ march into Afrin to push its rebel allies in Syria to reorganize as a coherent, disciplined force. But what happens next if the factions fail to do so by the reported year-end deadline? Turkey has launched a fresh effort to reorganize allied rebels in northern …

Lebanon’s caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said on Tuesday that the security forces have managed to arrest eight terror cells in 2022, assuring that the country’s security is under control. “The Intelligence Directorate was capable of arresting eight terror cells in 2022. We adhere to the secrecy of our investigations …

The focus may be on the midterms and the Russia-Ukraine war, but the Pentagon is quietly starting to build infrastructure in Syria for a long-haul fight with the Islamic State. Roughly 900 special forces are still working overtime to help local forces hunt ISIS remnants to keep the terrorist group …

An air strike late on Tuesday hit fuel tankers in Syrian territory shortly after they entered from Iraq, killing about 15 people, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The strike hit two of the eight tankers that entered from Al Qaim border crossing in western Iraq to Albu …

The chief of staff of the Iranian military, Mohammad Bagheri, called on Monday for greater military cooperation with Iraq. In a phone call to Iraq’s recently appointed defense minister, Thabet Muhammad Saeed Al Abbasi, Bagheri said military relations between the two countries should be boosted, and called for the armed …

The Financial Action Task Force is planning to ramp up oversight of crypto providers, sources say. Countries that fail to implement anti-money laundering guidelines for cryptocurrencies could be added to a “grey list” that includes Syria and Haiti under a global watchdog’s plans to tighten scrutiny of virtual assets.

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry says it has arrested 26 people — all foreigners — in connection with last month’s attack on a Shi’ite pilgrimage site in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz that has been claimed by the Islamic State (IS) militant group. In a statement published on November 7, the …

Repatriations of foreign woman and children affiliated to Islamic State from detention camps in northeast Syria hit a record high in 2022, Kurdish authorities said on Tuesday. Thousands of foreigners including women and children had gone to Syria to live in IS’s so-called “caliphate” until 2019, when U.S.-backed Kurdish forces …