Middle Orient

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 …

Turkey’s security forces have arrested 30 suspected ISIS terrorists, primarily foreigners, in different parts of the country as part of preemptive operations to prevent possible terrorist attacks during the New Year celebrations. The security units arrested 23 persons linked to ISIS in Ankara during a joint security operation carried out …

Iraqi security forces have launched an investigation into the deaths of 20 civilians during an operation to capture two terrorist suspects on Thursday. The tragedy occurred in Rashayed village in the central province of Babylon, just south of Baghdad, when special forces and intelligence officers prepared to raid the home …

The Islamist militants attacked the radio station for years, because it played music, because it hired women, because its liberal values posed a challenge to Syria’s zealous men with guns. Lately, though, the attacks on the station have stopped, and its tormentor — a militant group once affiliated with al-Qaeda …

A court certified October’s parliamentary vote that gave Muqtada al-Sadr’s party a plurality of seats, clearing a path for a government to be formed. Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Monday upheld the results of the country’s October parliamentary elections, resolving a dispute that had stalled the formation of a new …

With tensions ratcheting up between the Israelis and the leaders of the Palestinian groups in the West Bank and Gaza, yet another wave of violence appears imminent. Hamas officials have been vowing renewed violence for weeks as they have criticized Egyptian mediators who have been trying to hammer out a …