Middle Orient

Amid longstanding political deadlock and economic and environmental challenges, Iraqi prime minister Mustafa Kadhimi is attending the GCC +3 Summit in Saudi Arabia. Iraq announced officially today that it will participate in the GCC+3 Summit on Saturday, July 16. The summit includes the leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council …

While the document lays out a platform for continued US-Israeli cooperation, there are still signs the two are divided on diplomacy with Tehran. The press conference that followed the signing of a joint declaration on US-Israeli strategic cooperation by President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid Thursday exposed …

When he arrives in Riyadh this week, US President Joe Biden is poised to finally end the purgatory in which the US-Saudi relationship has languished since his inauguration. To many Americans, meaningful engagement with the Saudi government remains anathema given Saudi Arabia’s heavy-handed prosecution of the war in Yemen and …

Iran is expected to supply Russia with “hundreds” of drones, some of which will be able to carry weapons for use in the conflict in Ukraine. Iran is also preparing to train Russian forces on operating these drones as early as July. The Iranian government is preparing to supply Russia …

The US would use force “as a last resort” to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, US President Joe Biden said this week. In an interview with Channel 12 News that aired soon after he arrived in Israel on Wednesday, Biden said: “The only thing worse than Iran now …

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group threatened Israel with military escalation Wednesday if a future deal over the disputed maritime border between the two countries is not in Lebanon’s favor. Sayyed Hassan Narallah said in a televised speech that Lebanon should be able to extract oil and gas in …

Timothy Betts said it is better for prisoners’ home countries to repatriate them so they are no longer in the region A State Department official warned that the large number of non-Syrian fighters currently detained in Northeast Syria would pose less of a risk to global security if they went …

Tehran recently hosted a regional summit on addressing the dust storms that have ravaged the area over the past two years. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi accused Western powers of playing into the destruction of environment by tapping into the Middle East’s natural resources. Raisi was addressing a regional summit in …

The Turkish, Iranian and Russian leaders are set to meet in Tehran next week amid lingering Turkish threats against Syrian Kurdish groups. Putin and Erdogan will separately discuss the Ukrainian grain crisis. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Tehran next week, …

While joining the bloc has its upsides, it will be extremely difficult for Tehran to get full benefits from BRICS without the complete lifting of Western sanctions. Recently, Iran applied to join BRICS, a group consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. On a global level, this forum …