Middle Orient

Will He Undermine Turkish Democracy to Stay in Power? Over the past few months, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has looked increasingly desperate. He has stepped up his repression of critics and political opponents, including, most recently, Metin Gurcan, a founding member of the opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), …

The Syrian army loyal to Bashar al-Assad has struggled to control the country’s eastern desert. Syrian state-run media said five soldiers were killed in an Islamic State missile attack on a transport convoy in the country’s eastern desert on Sunday evening. Twenty others were wounded, state-run SANA news agency reported. …

The Houthis claimed the ship was carrying military equipment and conducting “hostile activities” in Yemen’s territorial waters. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen accused the Houthis on Monday of “hijacking” an Emirati-flagged vessel in the Red Sea that it claimed was carrying medical supplies but which the rebels described as a …

Turkey’s consumer inflation is bound to increase further in the coming months after reaching 36% in 2021, with even bigger numbers recorded in the producer sector. Turkey’s consumer inflation surged by a staggering 13.6 percent in December, bringing the 2021 annual rate to 36 percent — the highest under the …

Iran and Muslims, indeed even non-Muslims worldwide, have observed and continue to observe a somber second anniversary of the assassination of General Qassim Soleimani. I happen to share my birthday with the most horrific crime ever committed by the US in the assassination of Al Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani …

The Iran-China 25-Year Cooperation Programme, signed in March in Tehran, was paid little attention by the mainstream media. The vague and broad text of the leaked draft agreement from the year prior and the absence of attention made it look like every other agreement for cultural cooperation between two countries. …

The year 2022 could see an escalation of tensions between Iran and the United States if nuclear talks aimed at reviving the stalled 2015 nuclear deal collapse. While analyst believe an agreement is still reachable as ongoing negotiations are entered into the new calendar, the United States and EU countries …

Much of the world is growing increasingly impatient as Iran plays for time on the diplomatic front while it forges ahead towards full nuclear capability. Armed intervention to deter its activities becomes ever more likely. On December 11 Britain hosted a two-day meeting of the G7 group of industrialized nations …

The international community has faced an unprecedented social and economic shock due to three ‘big bangs’ — increasing US–China strategic competition, the fourth industrial revolution and the COVID-19 crisis. These three big bangs are interrelated and pose important challenges and consequences for world trade, regional stability and the future of …

Iraq also needs continued coalition airstrikes against ISIS remnants on the border with Syria, he added. Following the agreed conclusion of the US-led coalition’s combat mission in Iraq in December, the country still needs supporting coalition airstrikes to combat ISIS, Iraqi military spokesperson Yehia Rasool said on Friday. The Iraqi …