Middle Orient

The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized a boat in the Gulf of Oman carrying fertilizer used to make explosives that was caught last year smuggling weapons to Yemen. The British royal navy said it confiscated 2,295 pounds of illegal drugs in the same waters. The interdictions were just the …

Moscow said to offer some sanctions relief in return for nuclear program limits; Biden administration said to have knowledge of proposal, which would likely need US Congress review Russia has discussed with Iran the possibility of an interim deal that would see limited sanctions relief in return for reimposing some …

The Houthis serve as Iran’s proxy in the civil war in Yemen and against Saudi Arabia, which backs the internationally recognized Republic of Yemen government. The UAE, which hosts U.S. military forces at Al Dhafra air base, has been a part of the Saudi coalition to support the official Yemeni …

The Iranian president addressed Russian lawmakers on the second day of his visit to Moscow, a “landmark” trip at a critical juncture for the revival of the Iran nuclear deal. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi defended his country’s nuclear activities as legal and renewed strong criticism against the American sanctions regime …

Detention facilities under US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces were hit by a major attack attempting to free the thousands within. Mosque loudspeakers urged residents of Hasakah to stay inside in the early morning hours of Jan. 21 after an attempted jailbreak at detention facilities housing thousands of Syrian and Iraqi …

Israel is worried about the international community’s lack of reaction to the Houthi drone attack on the Emirates, surely orchestrated by Iran. “They are in shock, deep shock. They are not used to being attacked like this,” a senior Israeli security official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, referring to …

Going into 2022, many of the main issues that dominated the European Union’s (EU) relations with the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), from the ongoing talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to the conflicts in …

Three days have passed since the Houthi attack on the UAE, yet there’s still a lot we don’t know about what really happened. That’s not uncommon. When the Iranians attacked Saudi oil processing facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais in the fall of 2019, it took several weeks to figure out …

The State Department announced, on Jan. 19, that Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, is departing for a round of consultations in the Gulf and London. He’ll be joining U.N. Special Envoy Hans Grundberg, who has already arrived in the region. According to the announcement, Lenderking is being …

Russia is trying to decrease the influence of the eighth brigade in south Syria, in order to bolster the government’s presence there, according to North Press. Russia is trying its best to strengthen the Syrian government to reassert its control over south Syria, most notably the Daraa governorate, the birthplace …