Middle Orient

Residents near border initially told to remain indoors. Soldiers have blocked some roads in effort to nab infiltrators. IDF soldiers arrested two suspects in northern Israel Thursday morning after they were spotted crossing the border from Lebanon into Israel overnight, the military said in a statement. The two were reportedly …

Images reportedly from the scene showed heavily damaged structures and a smoke cloud that could be seen from a distance. One person was killed and 10 others were injured after a weapons storage belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist movement at the Al-Zawiya market in Gaza City exploded on …

Democratic and Republican senators voiced heavy criticism of the Turkish government to a State Department official during a Wednesday hearing. The lawmakers accused Ankara of abusing the international police system, being an “aggressor” toward Greece, and much more. US senators criticized Turkish government policies during a Wednesday hearing, and demanded …

The White House has maintained the previous administration’s demands that Ankara dispose of the Russian missile defense system. The Biden administration won’t budge on the previous administration’s demands that NATO ally Turkey get rid of Russia’s S-400 missile defense system. The United States will also continue to support the Syrian …

Reports in Israel say the government has set up an interministerial team to ‘look into’ the export of Israeli-made Pegasus software and allegation over its abuse against politicians and journalists worldwide. Israel has not yet established a formal inquiry committee into the NSO Group affair, but the government has set …

Unless he is playing a game of brinkmanship to force the Greek Cypriots into a settlement, Erdogan’s tough moves in the Cyprus conflict are raising the specter of Turkey’s eventual annexation of Northern Cyprus. Having exhausted the yields of his Syrian, Libyan and Eastern Mediterranean ventures, Turkish President Recep Tayyip …

The United States and Turkey reached an agreement under which Turkey is to secure Kabul’s airport after the withdrawal of all American and NATO allied troops from Afghanistan by the end of August, 2021. This prompted a vigorous condemnation from the Taliban including the threat of Jihad: “We consider stay …

Five years after a group in the military tried to overthrow President Erdogan’s government, democracy and rule of law are in decline – as is the economy – while the young flee the country. Five years ago, a coup attempt was stopped by loyalist soldiers and ordinary people in Turkey. …

Syria accused Israel of carrying out an airstrike in a central province early on Thursday, the second such attack this week. The aerial attack caused material damage, it said. The country’s state news agency quoted an unidentified Syrian military official as saying the air defense systems shot down most of …

Iran Thursday began exporting crude oil for the first time in the Gulf of Oman, bypassing the strategic Strait of Hormuz. During a ceremony marking the inauguration of the project, President Hassan Rouhani called the plan “strategic.” Iranian state media described the move as an indication that sanctions imposed by …