Middle Orient

This means that Turkey will once again attack Kurds in Syria in an attempt to push them out of the region and claim their lands. These Kurdish groups that Erdogan labels “terrorists,” however, just so happen to be US allies who fought ISIS. Erdogan has publicly claimed parts of northern …

After agreeing to extend the monitoring mechanism of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by reinstalling surveillance cameras a year ago, Iran then announced that it would not allow the IAEA to see images from the devices. The Iranian regime is also refusing to answer the IAEA’s questions about uranium …

A new cycle of attacks and responses between Iran and its adversaries threatens regional stability and the potential revival of the 2015 multilateral Iran nuclear agreement. Israel has demonstrated a remarkable ability to execute operations targeting Iranian officials within Iran.Iranian leaders appear to have decided to retaliate against the U.S. …

Late last week, Turkey announced the capture of a high-ranking member of Islamic State (IS) in Istanbul, initially believed to be the new leader, though that is now uncertain. Since its rise in 2014, IS financiers and logisticians have cultivated and maintained robust support networks throughout Turkey, but now, it …

A U.S. court has asked Lebanon’s judiciary to serve legal papers against two top Lebanese politicians seeking to compel their response to accusations they orchestrated the kidnap and torture of a Lebanese-American couple. Elie Samaha, a U.S.-Lebanese citizen, and his wife Lara Samaha, who holds a U.S. green card, are …

The Kurdistan Regional Government on Thursday accused Iraqi Hezbollah-linked militants of carrying out a drone attack in Erbil that wounded three civilians and damaged several vehicles. The strike occurred on the outskirts of Erbil, on the road to Pirmam, at 9.35pm local time on Wednesday. Officials said a drone was …

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group threatened Thursday to strike a gas rig Israel is setting up in the Mediterranean Sea and that Lebanon claims is in a disputed maritime area between the two countries. Israel says the location is part of its U.N.-recognized exclusive economic zone. Hezbollah’s Hassan …

For an organization that disintegrated twice over the past four-and-a-half decades — once in 1976 and again in 1984 — the Lebanese army is no stranger to crisis. But with Lebanon’s economy in free fall, the predicament in which the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) now finds itself is unprecedented. The …

Turkish media said that the Turkish army and factions of the Syrian National Army have completed preparations and are waiting for Ankara’s order to start a new cross-border operation in northern Syria. The Turkish newspaper, Sabah Daily, reported that the Turkish army had taken combat positions around the cities of …

In a press briefing on Tuesday, the spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, Ned Price, renewed his country’s concerns about a breach of the 2019 ceasefire agreement in northeast Syria and said that any escalation by Turkey would affect the battle against the Islamic State Organization (ISIS). “I’ve previously …