Middle Orient

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan create a natural gas hub in Thrace, the European part of Turkey. As expected, this proposal made headlines in the Turkish media, but the content has not yet been detailed. It may have been designed as a hub …

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has seized several cities and towns in areas under the control of the Turkish-backed factions after days of clashes between rival factions. Areas controlled by the Syrian National Army (SNA) — which is affiliated with the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) — in the eastern and northern …

Russia is testing the readiness of the Syrian government forces in their area of deployment on the outskirts of Idlib, in what some fear is a prelude to a wide-scale military operation to uproot the opposition in northwest Syria. The Syrian government forces, under the supervision of Russian forces, conducted …

The Islamic State has launched several attacks against the Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria amid lax security by the Syrian Democratic Forces. The Islamic State has recently renewed its activities in the areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria. On Oct. 14, IS …

Protests in Iran have continued to spread to universities, presenting a new challenge to the Islamic Republic. The protests in Iran that started in mid-September over the death of a young woman in police custody have spread to universities, which have been a historic hotbed of unrest in the country …

This week, Russia struck deep into Ukraine and hit the capital, Kyiv, with kamikaze drones. These small and noisy airborne devices are designed to strike at a distance. They are nimble enough to avoid many air defense systems. Unlike many other attack drones, they do not use weapons to destroy …

Wars tend to spread, infecting parts of the world far from the frontlines and the Ukraine conflict is no exception. The global economic ripple effects of the war in Ukraine – from the world’s sharpest “hunger pains” since World War II to soaring inflation and energy crises – have been …

The Islamic State caliphate, which held large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, was defeated in 2018, yet analysts are seeing signs, including a growing number of attacks in northern and western Iraq, of a resurgence, a cause for concern that needs to be watched closely. “The Islamic State …

Abstract: A fragile U.N.-brokered ceasefire between the Houthis and their military opponents in Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) held from April to October 2022 but has now lapsed. The Houthis hold the key to an enduring ceasefire in Yemen, and can threaten the stability of Red Sea shipping lanes and …

[W]e also know that Henry Kissinger, peddler of detente, helped prolong the evil empire’s life by providing it with easy credit and undeserved prestige. In the case of Iran, Obama and his entourage invented a false choice between “doing another Iraq”, which meant a full-scale invasion that a majority of …