Middle Orient

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait invited Iran on Wednesday to hold negotiations to determine the eastern limit of a joint, energy-rich, offshore area, the Saudi state-news agency SPA reported. The two Gulf Arab monarchies reaffirmed their right to develop the Durra natural gas field, located in this area, the Saudi Press …

Since its 2019 defeat, ISIL has morphed into a series of affiliates taking hold in Afghanistan and Africa’s Sahel belt. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) has changed form several times over the years. With its origins in the aftermath of the US invasion of …

Iran’s future should not be dependent on the success or failure of negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement with the world powers, the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told senior officials on Tuesday, according to state television. Khamenei said that the negotiations, reported to be stalled for the last …

A Hamas sources says the factions in Gaza — and particularly Hamas — do not intend to fire rockets at Israel at this point, but rather wait to see how things evolve on the ground Palestinian factions in Gaza said Wednesday that they are prepared to respond to any Israeli …

Fears are mounting about a looming humanitarian catastrophe amid concerns that Russia will close the last border crossing through which UN and NGO aid passes to reach millions of needy in north Syria. The Syrian Response Coordination Group (RCG), an Idlib-based humanitarian nongovernmental organization assisting the displaced in northwestern Syria, …

Diplomatic and economic relations between Tunisia and Turkey are at stake in the wake of statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following President Kais Saied’s decision to dissolve parliament. Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has recently rejected any foreign interference in his country’s internal affairs. Speaking at an April 6 …

Iraq’s new parliament has failed to form a government and the political scene is stuck in a difficult deadlock, indicating that the crisis is likely to continue for a long time. About six months after Iraq’s parliamentary elections, the new government has yet to be formed. What are the possible …

The Biden administration plans to reject an Iranian demand that the United States lift its designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization as a condition for renewing the 2015 nuclear agreement — putting completion of the deal in jeopardy. A senior administration official told me that …

The Al-Hol camp for displaced people in Syria is a jihadist threat and should be dismantled, a senior Iraqi security official said on Saturday. Al-Hol, in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, is Syria’s largest camp for displaced people. It houses about 56,000 including displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees, some of whom maintain …

Iraqi airstrikes killed at least 70 ISIS militants over the past three months, according to a top security official. Even though Iraq carries out regular airstrikes and operations against ISIS militants, the group still “pose a threat” in northern, eastern, and western provinces, including Diyala, Kirkuk, southwest Nineveh, Anbar, and …