Middle Orient

The Syrian Democratic Forces are seeking Arab tribes’ support in Manbij, northeast of Aleppo, ahead of the anticipated Turkish military operation in northern Syria. Turkish armed forces and Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions have mobilized on the outskirts of Manbij, which is under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian …

A gas field in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region was targeted by rockets on Saturday for the third time in four days, authorities said. The Counter-Terrorism Group, a security body in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, said in a statement six rockets in total had hit the Khor Mor gas field, which …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Russia on Thursday, seeking to persuade President Vladimir Putin to help stem disaster in Syria’s Idlib province. Turkish forces are locked in fierce combat there with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army in what has become the last bastion of the armed rebels fighting …

While the war in Syria has receded from the international spotlight, residents in the country’s northeast are bracing for a new wave of armed conflict. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for months threatened to launch a military invasion of the region to push back Syrian Kurdish fighters and create …

For more than three months, Turkey has been rocked by rolling protests centered in Istanbul. Following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s controversial appointment of businessman Melih Bulu as the new rector of Bogazici University in January, students and professors began holding rallies to denounce the pick. They see Bulu as an …

As Iran-Israel’s relations reach the nadir over the assassination of Colonel Sayeed Khodaye of Unit 840 of the Iranian Army by Israel on May 22, 2022, the quote of Albert Einstein rings a bell “We must learn the difficult lesson that the future of Mankind will only be tolerable when …

Hossein Taeb, a hard-line cleric, was the intelligence chief of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the armed forces, for over a decade. But in a surprise move, the IRGC announced on June 23 that it had removed Taeb from his prominent post. The major …

Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine has forced countries around the world to reexamine their geopolitical choices. Turkey, a strategic partner to both of the states at war, has been affected more than most nations. Caught in a lose-lose situation where taking any side in the conflict would lead …

The decision by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to withdraw his large bloc from parliament clouds prospects for a broad-based government, eight months after national elections in Iraq. The resignations position pro-Iranian factions to determine the composition of the next government.Sadr’s move could trigger widespread unrest and or the calling of …

NATO leaders will convene in a historic meeting in Madrid next week amid three lingering questions: Will Finland and Sweden get official invitations from the Transatlantic alliance? Will US President Joe Biden and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meet on the sidelines of the summit? And what is Ankara’s …