Middle Orient

The killing of longtime al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri could accelerate a trend that has been consistently emerging in recent years—the factionalization and regionalization of the global jihadist movement. To survive, al-Qaeda adopted a franchising strategy which led it to expand worldwide and establish regional branches in the Levant, North Africa, …

Advances in Iran’s nuclear program have heightened concerns that it could develop a nuclear bomb in a matter of weeks. Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat and has signaled it would take aggressive military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program if it passes the nuclear threshold. …

Demonstrators are occupying parliament in Baghdad, with Iraq’s main political camps deeply divided. The standoff need not turn violent, if the country’s leaders can shift to dialogue with support from foreign partners. It has been ten months since Iraqis went to the polls, for the fifth general election in the …

The Pentagon has warned Iran not to provide armed drones to Russia for use in Ukraine. Russian officials have received training on Iranian military drones in Iran in recent weeks, a US official confirmed to Al-Monitor. US intelligence believes the training is part of a recent agreement between Tehran and …

Gas payments in rubles will help Turkey reduce its foreign-currency demand. The economic outcomes of the recent Turkish-Russian summit and a string of financial moves by the Russian builder of a nuclear power plant in Turkey have come as fresh signs that Turkey is becoming a safe harbor for sanctions-hit …

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says the Iranian regime and “its terrorist partners” aren’t just a threat to the Middle East, but also a critical risk for the United States. In a number of tweets on Monday, the FBI said Iran and its proxy groups “don’t just endanger the Middle …

A Turkish drone strike Tuesday killed at least four people in a northeast Syrian city held by Kurdish forces, the latest in a flurry of attacks, a war monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack struck near a hospital in Qamishli, the de-facto capital of …

The autonomous government in northern Iraq has an ambitious plan to curb gun violence, but some in the region have concerns about the feasibility of gun control due to societal and political factors. Gun violence in the United States continues to make headlines around the world, but Iraq’s Kurdistan Region …

Tehran says Iranian experts will control “from day one” an Iranian satellite due to be launched by Russia next week, rejecting reports that it will be first used by Moscow to “enhance its surveillance of military targets” in Ukraine. “All orders related to the control and operation of this satellite …

Talks to revive the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers reportedly resumed in Vienna on Thursday, after a six-week hiatus. Negotiators from Iran, the United States, and the European Union separately announced late on Wednesday that they were leaving for Vienna to continue the talks to re-up the 2015 …