Middle Orient

September is supposed to be a very critical month for the nearly 5.5 million people of Tigray region of Ethiopia affected by very severe food shortages, almost half of them on brink of starvation. If the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara are included then as many as 13 million …

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “pro-Russian tilt” has grown louder in recent weeks, as Vladimir Putin clearly looks for Erdogan to stay in power. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces the biggest challenge to his nearly two decades of uninterrupted rule as galloping inflation, a wilting national currency and resentment toward Syrian …

In landmark talks in Baghdad, Hakan Fidan sought to ease bilateral tensions over a deadly attack in July, assert Turkey’s resolve to continue military operations on Iraqi soil and sway the political impasse in Iraq. Turkey’s intelligence chief Hakan Fidan became the country’s first official to hold high-level talks in …

While Turkey has prided itself for mediating between Russia and Ukraine, Ankara has shown no such impartiality in the recent fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with Turkish leaders airing their support for Baku. Turkish killer drones were back in action Wednesday as its ally Azerbaijan kept up attacks against Armenia …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a revived nuclear deal with Iran in the near future is “unlikely,” based on Iran’s response to the European Union’s most recent proposal for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. “What we’ve seen over the last week or …

Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, who is also the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, criticized the Biden administration for failing to get other countries to sign on to the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.

Why Iran Could Be the Real Loser in Iraq’s Intra-Shiite Struggle On August 29, the Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced that he would withdraw from politics after months of failed attempts to form a new government. Thousands of supporters of the nationalist leader, who has emerged as a staunch …

The comments by the Mossad chief reaffirmed Israel’s “octopus head” policy adopted by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. “Even if a nuclear deal is signed, it will not give Iran immunity from Mossad operations. We won’t take part in this charade and we don’t close our eyes to the proven …

Photos posted online by Kyiv appear to confirm the Pentagon’s claim that Iran has delivered armed drones to Russia for use in Ukraine. Ukraine’s military reported Tuesday that it had destroyed an Iranian drone used by Russian forces near Kharkiv. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry published photos of what it said …

US and EU officials dismiss claims that an Israeli campaign has influenced negotiations, and say the next move is Iran’s. There is complete radio silence between Tehran and Washington, with no messages moving via mediators. There appears to be a sort of “negotiations fatigue” among all the parties. Iran says …