Middle Orient

An Embattled Regime Faces Mass Protests—and an Ailing Supreme Leader Early this month, the Iranian rumor mill cranked into overdrive amid reports that Iran’s 83-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who survived prostate cancer surgery in 2014, was again gravely ill. On September 16, the New York Times reported that …

Notorious mass murderer Ebrahim Raisi was running scared at the UN last week. As leader of the world’s foremost pariah regime, this truly evil man had plenty of time on his hands in New York, with few heads of state willing to engage with him. News outlets such as The …

Highlighting Iraq’s efforts to mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Iraqi foreign minister said Baghdad is ready to host a fresh round of negotiations between Tehran and Riyadh. In a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in New York on Saturday, Fuad Hussein pointed to the positive trend …

Qatar is working to export more gas to Europe in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Qatar’s energy exports are significantly higher than they were last year. Qatari exports of petroleum gases and other hydrocarbons such as liquified natural gas amounted to $9.2 billion in August of this year, …

Eastern Mediterranean conflict is steadily turning into a fresh strain in already-troubled US-Turkey ties, as Erdogan lashes out at Washington and Athens over the military buildup in the Dodecanese islands. The US and Greek ambassadors to Turkey have been summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara in a protest …

Kyrgyzstan’s use of Turkish drones in a border dispute with Tajikistan leaves Turkey in a tight spot on how to balance its ties in Central Asia, a region where it has long sought to expand its influence. Turkey’s efforts to add strategic depth to its ties with Central Asia appear …

An Embattled Regime Faces Mass Protests—and an Ailing Supreme Leader Early this month, the Iranian rumor mill cranked into overdrive amid reports that Iran’s 83-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who survived prostate cancer surgery in 2014, was again gravely ill. On September 16, the New York Times reported that …

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been named the kingdom’s prime minister, a position traditionally held by the king. Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, is first in line to succeed his father as king, who announced the new position on Tuesday in a royal …

Two people were killed and eight were wounded on Tuesday by Turkish artillery targeting homes and workshops controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the countryside of Syria’s northern province of Hasakah, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported. SDF retaliated by shelling villages controlled by Turkish troops …

Iran ramps up its bombing campaign in northern Iraq in what Iraqi Kurds argue is an attempt to divert the world’s attention from the killing of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. Iran unleashed a wave of missiles and drones on the headquarters of three separate Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in …