Middle Orient

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to visit Turkey June 8 as Ankara looks for a Russian or US nod to press ahead with a new military intervention against Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria. Though Lavrov’s talks in Ankara are expected to focus on the Ukraine war and its …

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson should dismiss Defence Minister Peter Hullqvist, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the newspaper Expressen reported on Saturday. Erdogan’s demand is based on a speech Hulqvist gave at a party 10 years ago where he celebrated the Kurdistan Workers’ People, PKK, and its imprisoned leader …

Turkey’s move to pressure Sweden and Finland into extraditing alleged “terrorists” they harbour is a method Ankara used for several years against countries in the Western Balkans, including EU candidate countries, under the idle gaze of Brussels. While Turkey wields investment and aid as a sword of Damocles over the …

Foreign Minister of Iran Hossein Amirabdollahian will pay a visit to Turkey on Monday, June 6. The upcoming trip will mark the top Iranian diplomat’s first visit to neighboring Turkey after taking office in August 2021. Istanbul is also going to host a trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of …

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Iran took oil from two Greek tankers last month in the Arabian Gulf. Helicopter raids were launched in retaliation for Greece’s part in the US taking crude from an Iranian-flagged tanker in the Mediterranean Sea because of sanctions on the Islamic …

Iranian leader warns “Zionist regime” that Tehran will strike back Vahid Jalalzadeh, the chairman of Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, gave an interview to Al-Alam TV saying that the Islamic Republic would continue to support the Syrian regime but that reports it was replacing Russians in Syria …

Dr. Ayub Entezari, who died over the weekend, reportedly showed former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani around a turbine factory in 2019. Iranian scientist Dr. Ayub Entezari, 35, who died on Saturday after reportedly suffering from food poisoning, met with former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in 2019, Middle East analyst Jason …

Mohammad-Bagher Morad fled Iran nine years ago after receiving a five-year prison sentence for “colluding against national security” after criticizing the regime. An Iranian dissident journalist under asylum in Turkey disappeared on May 30 and is suspected of being kidnapped by Iranian agents, according to Iran International, a news agency …

The nuclear agency vote could lead to a UN Security Council vote and snap back global sanctions against Iran, which could impact even Russia and China. Not only has Iran failed to reduce concerns about its violations of the nuclear nonproliferation safeguards agreement, it also will eventually cross the uranium …

Iraqi security forces have killed 13 Islamic State (IS) militants during a series of operations in the provinces of Kirkuk, Nineveh and Diyala, the military has said Iraqi security forces have killed 13 Islamic State (IS) militants during a series of operations in the provinces of Kirkuk, Nineveh and Diyala, …