Middle Orient

Riyadh’s interest in Pakistan’s Gwadar port is of particular concern for Tehran and its vital oil trade with China. A $10 billion Saudi Aramco refinery is being built near the port city of Gwadar in Pakistan, about 169 kilometers (km) east of Iran’s Chabahar port in the western Sistan and …

Russia has offered to mediate and facilitate a meeting between Turkiye and Syria, with limited success On 6 December, Orhan Miroglu, the head of the Justice and Development Party, reported that Damascus turned down Ankara’s proposal to set up a meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkish President Recep …

US convoys in Hasakah have been limited to deterring Turkish strikes on oil installations, in fear of further degradation of the decaying infrastructure Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on 7 December that the US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has suffered immensely in the latest wave of Turkish …

As Budapest actively implements its own “Look to the East” policy, Tehran will find a potentially useful partner in Europe. Upon signing the protocol of the third session of the joint commission for economic cooperation between Iran and Hungary on 16 November, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó expressed support for …

During a two-week visit to Iran in November, I witnessed women of all ages walking freely on the streets without the hijab. But, what we’re not told, is that they have been doing so for years. The explosion of protests in Iran that began in September were not about the …

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian described the three islands in the Persian Gulf as inseparable and eternal parts of Iran, stressing that Tehran will by no means compromise on its territorial integrity.  “The islands of Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb and the Lesser Tunb in the Persian Gulf are inseparable …

An Iraqi court judgment imprisoning a young man for criticizing a governmental entity sparked anger and rejection in the southern province of Nasiriyah last week, prompting hundreds of young people to demonstrate and confront the security forces, who killed at least two demonstrators. The story began when 20-year-old Haider Al-Zaidi …

“I wish we hadn’t had intercourse at the age of 6. Then we could be really happy. … My mom used to brush my hair and send me to you,” the woman tells her supposed “husband.” The man casually admits “it was something wrong.” This secretly recorded conversation by the …

The U.S. position towards the Turkish operation in northern Syria is surrounded by a state of ambiguity, according to North Press. The U.S. position towards the Turkish operation in northern Syria is surrounded by a state of ambiguity, which has angered Washington’s allies, the Kurdish units. Washington’s public statements confirm …

The top Turkish diplomat aired a rare complaint over the Russian stalling of constitutional talks between the warring Syrian actors, calling on Moscow to allow the process to resume. A high-level Russian diplomatic delegation is heading to Turkey on Thursday for talks amid repeated Turkish threats of a new ground …