Middle Orient

Turkey´s president on Monday complicated Sweden and Finland´s historic bid to join NATO, saying he cannot allow them to become members of the alliance because of their perceived inaction against exiled Kurdish militants. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan doubled down on comments last week indicating that the two Nordic countries´ path …

Sweden and Finland have proclaimed their intent to join NATO in the backdrop of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war in Europe. The move, which is a drastic deviation from decades of military non-alignment between both countries, deals another blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin as his country struggles with the repercussions …

Emboldened by an oil price surge since Russia invaded Ukraine, Iran’s clerical rulers are in no rush to revive a 2015 nuclear pact with world powers to ease sanctions on its energy-reliant economy, three officials familiar with Tehran’s thinking said.

On Wednesday April 27, 2022, according to Syria’s defense ministry backed by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Israel launched a missile attack on positions near Damascus killing four Syrian soldiers. The Syrian state news agency claimed the missiles had been launched from Tiberias in north-eastern Israel. According …

Aleppo was devastated by bombing and shelling during the Syrian war. It remains unsafe, with residents subject to shakedowns by the regime’s security forces and various militias. Damascus and its outside backers should curb this predation as a crucial first step toward the city’s recovery. What’s new? Almost six years after …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his country is “not favorable” toward Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries. “We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not …

In February 2022, the Council of the European Union (E.U.) gathered in Brussels to discuss the extension of the Coordinated Maritime Presence (CMP) concept to the North-Western Indian Ocean. First piloted in the Gulf of Guinea at the beginning of 2021, the CMP is a flexible tool to enhance maritime …

Iran began the new fiscal year on March 21, 2022 having recorded an estimated GDP growth rate of about 4% over the previous year and 3% for the non-oil sector. The consumer price index (CPI) has grown by 35% year-on-year, according to the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI). While GDP …

The United States has formally lifted sanctions on foreign investments in non-regime held areas of northern Syria, a long expected move that was held up by Treasury Department red tape as reported earlier by Al-Monitor. The Treasury Department posted the authorization on its website, which allows activities in 12 different …

Videos showing Israeli police officers beating and kicking mourners at the funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh in Jerusalem have gone viral. Palestinian television icon Shireen Abu Akleh was laid to rest in the Melkite Catholic Cemetery in Jerusalem’s old city Friday afternoon after an unprecedented attack by Israeli police at …