Middle Orient

President Joe Biden also downplayed his expected meetings with Saudi leaders, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. President Joe Biden said Thursday the purpose of his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia is not persuading the kingdom to boost oil output, but he has encouraged the Gulf region more broadly to …

Musicians, newlyweds, journalists, and even restaurateurs are not immune to the Turkish government’s repression of its Kurdish population. Dilan Karcik married her teenage sweetheart, Mesut, on June 12. The couple, both ethnic Kurds, celebrated their union with an exuberant bash at a wedding hall in Esenyurt, a working-class suburb of …

JUST INThe door is back open. After weeks of tension, Turkey finally dropped its objection to Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO as the Alliance kicked off its summit in Madrid on Tuesday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan scored a face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden and spurred …

In 2018, Syria also recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, prompting Georgia to cut ties, according to al-Araby al-Jadeed. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday announced the end of diplomatic ties between Kyiv and Damascus after Moscow ally Syria recognized the independence of eastern Ukraine’s two separatist republics. The breakaway states …

Turkey lifted its opposition to allowing Sweden and Finland to join the NATO Western alliance. Turkey’s agreement came on Tuesday, less than a day before the opening of the NATO summit in Madrid, following talks between leaders of the three countries. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called it a “historic decision.” …

Israel’s covert campaign to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program has rattled the Iranian leadership, resulting in a significant housecleaning in the intelligence division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the armed forces. Ebrahim Jabbari, the head of the unit in charge of protecting Supreme Leader Ayatollah …

The US-led coalition has revealed the identity of the Islamic State leader it arrested during an airdrop operation in northern Syria, saying he was a prominent bombmaker. But some Syrian opposition sources say they got the wrong man. The US military revealed the identity of the Islamic State (IS) leader …

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered the areas under the control of Turkish-backed factions in the countryside of Aleppo. Violent clashes erupted between the so-called 32nd Division affiliated with Ahrar al-Sham and the Third Legion, which is a merger of Turkish-backed factions, including the Levant Front and Jaish al-Islam, in the villages …

Indirect talks in Qatar have made little or no progress on restarting nuclear deal, Islamic Republic outlets agree. According to Tasnim News Agency, the indirect talks in Qatar between Iran and the United States to revive the nuclear deal have come to an end without progress. An “informed source” quoted …

Na stałe bazy NATO na wschodniej flance się nie zapowiada. Sojusz ograniczy się do powiększenia sił szybkiego reagowania. W razie wojny ich odsiecz nastąpi dopiero wtedy, gdy Moskwa zdąży zamienić Estonię czy Przesmyk Suwalski w połączenie Buczy z Mariupolem.