Middle Orient

It is often claimed that Turkey made a definitive break with the West in the 2000s after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power. The argument is that by changing direction internally, Ankara turned away from what the West was hoping to achieve in terms of its relations …

The argument [to bring Iran “in from the cold”] is that the Islamic Republic is behaving badly because, “excluded” from the outside world, it feels like a threatened lone wolf and thus obliged to adopt an aggressive posture. The most persistent peddlers of that bill of goods have been US …

This does not mean that Israel should not do what it can to try and impact the outcome of the talks. It should. But it needs to have realistic expectations. With nuclear talks set to renew in Vienna this week, Israel has spent the last few days engaged in a …

Monday’s indirect talks between the United States and Iran, with the participation of major powers, aim at bringing the two countries into full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. Negotiations in Vienna will only be about lifting sanctions and not Iran’s nuclear program, Iranian officials continued to insist on Friday, …

Iranian Mohammed Saeid Golabi was arrested in Kenya for coordinating a terror cell in Nairobi attacking both Israeli and local sites. An Iranian man, Mohammed Saeid Golabi, has been arrested in Kenya on suspicion of planning terror attacks against local and Israeli interests, according to an exclusive report in the …

Russia hopes to blow new life into a proposal for a multilateral security architecture in the Gulf, with the tacit approval of the Biden administration. If successful, the initiative would help stabilise the region, cement regional efforts to reduce tensions, and potentially prevent war-wracked Yemen from emerging as an Afghanistan …

Tel Aviv should refrain from attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities unless it has the capacity to completely destroy them, the former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence, Tamir Pardo, said yesterday. Speaking at a panel at Reichman University’s Institute for Policy and Strategy conference in Herzliya, Pardo warned that a military strike …

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said, Monday, that nine soldiers were killed in direct clashes with the US Navy in the Persian Gulf waters, local media reported. The Mehr News Agency quoted Navy commander, Alireza Tangsiri, as saying that the clashes took place in the Persian Gulf, without specifying …

Only the United States can play a significant role in a democratic solution to the Kurdish question, Mazloum Kobane, the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said. Noting that the Kurdish question in Turkey impacts Syria, Kobane told the National Interest that the problems of all Kurds are …

Damascus, SANA-Iraqi Minister of Industry and Minerals, Manhal Aziz al-Khabbaz affirmed the importance of sharing experiences between Iraq and Syria and benefiting from the advanced Syrian experience in the field of industrial cities and zones. The Iraqi Minister’s remarks came during a press statement following his arrival in Damascus on …