Middle Orient

The Biden administration on Thursday slapped terrorism sanctions on two accountants and two companies in Lebanon for providing the militant group Hezbollah with financial services. The Treasury Department announced it would also impose sanctions on a third person for assisting Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated “foreign terrorist organization,” with weapons acquisitions. The …

The commander of Iran’s Basij Organization says that the United States is engaged in a hybrid war against the country. After two and a half months of protests leading to hundreds of deaths, including an especially high number of teenagers, Iran has continued to claim that foreign hands are behind …

Iran is opening offices for its oil ministries in several Iraqi cities to expand cooperation in oil, gas and other energy sectors. The Iranian oil ministry has opened an office in Baghdad to expand the energy cooperation between the two countries. “The Baghdad office will manage all other offices that …

President Ebrahim Raisi made no reference to the killings of the protesters in the government crackdown and once again blamed the unrest on outside enemies. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi described the public protests that have gripped his country since mid-September as “yet another disgraceful miscalculation” by “the enemy.” Raisi made his comments in …

Many Iranians are characterizing what is occurring across the country as a revolution, not just scattered protests and demonstrations as the authorities insist. While revolutions have taken place in less than a month in some countries, if Iran’s history offers any guidance, a revolution there is often preceded by many …

Syrian Kurdish commander’s plans to defend Kobani and Manbij have US military officials worried about security at prisons holding some 10,000 former IS fighters. Concerns are running high in the Pentagon over Turkey’s threats to launch yet another military incursion against Syria’s Kurdish-led forces, officials said Tuesday, after warning last …

The leader of the Islamic State blew himself up last month in an operation carried out by the rebel Free Syrian Army in Daraa province in southwest Syria. Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, who had led the Islamist ISIS since March, killed himself and his aides using a suicide belt after …

Damascus’ low-key reaction to Turkey’s recent strikes on Syrian Kurdish targets suggests it might acquiesce to Turkish military moves that would contribute to ending the US military presence in the north.

Ankara demands “concrete steps” from Sweden and Finland before giving the nod to NATO’s Nordic enlargement, including an “asset freeze,” a demand that hasn’t been expressed publicly before. Turkey will wait for more concrete steps — including a freeze of “terror assets” in Sweden and Finland — before giving a …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signaled his intent to soon launch the ground phase of Operation Claw-Sword, a military operation designed to clear areas along Turkey’s southern borders of fighters from affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, which the United States lists as a terrorist organization. A …