Middle Orient

Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s twice-postponed trip to India that finally took place last week. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited India June 2, marking 30 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries and seeking to expand their flourishing defense relationship. Gantz met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defense …

The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is digging a trench to isolate its stronghold in Idlib from the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army-held areas in Aleppo countryside, which will escalate the humanitarian crisis and increase the suffering of millions of Syrian displaced in northwestern Syria. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been …

Iran has threatened to reduce its cooperation with the IAEA if a resolution is written against it. Iranian officials have continued to fire back at the United Nations nuclear watchdog over its findings as the negotiations to revive the Iranian nuclear deal remain at a standstill. During a television interview, …

Right-wing Knesset members are advancing a bill that would prevent universities and other state-funded institutions from flying the Palestinian flag. The Knesset approved on June 1 the initial reading of a bill by Knesset member Eli Cohen of the Likud that would ban organizations and institutions budgeted for or supported …

Yemen’s warring parties resumed talks Sunday on reopening roads in Taiz and other provinces, the United Nations said, after they agreed to renew a nationwide cease-fire. The U.N. mission to Yemen said delegations from the internationally recognized government and the country’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels began their second round of direct …

The killing of a senior officer in Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in broad daylight in the capital, Tehran, is rare. But the deaths of two senior members of the IRGC, the elite branch of Iran’s armed forces, inside the Islamic republic in the space of two weeks is …

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian will visit India next week with key focus expected to be on connectivity, particularly through the Chabahar port, and the situation in Afghanistan, Indian media reported. This will be Amirabdollahian’s first visit ever to India since taking charge last year. He was expected to visit …

What’s new? In October 2020, Baghdad and Erbil signed an agreement intended to build stability in Iraq’s Sinjar district through a new administration and security structure that would let displaced people return. The deal is only partly fulfilled, however. Turkey is intensifying bombardment of the PKK and its affiliates in the …

As diplomatic moves continue to shape the future of grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea and Russia’s Sea of Azov ports as a result of Moscow’s aggression, the outcome of attempts to “rewire” worldwide grain transport logistics is complicating the international geoeconomic environment by inducing food security problems. The conflict …

Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during what the army described as violent confrontations on Thursday. They are among four Palestinians who have been killed in the last two days at a time of heightened Mideast tensions. The Israeli military said forces operating in …