Middle Orient

There are growing signs that countries in the Middle East are prepared to accept the normalization of Assad’s regime, even after the ten-year civil war in Syria. Many countries, including the U.S. and Qatar, have been outspoken in their opposition to normalizing relations with Assad, while the United Arab Emirates …

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s visit to the Gulf states ahead of the annual Gulf Cooperation Council summit is intended to help rebuild his international reputation, sullied by his numerous missteps. With his stop in Qatar, MBS is also trying to continue healing the intra-GCC rift that began in …

Elite forces from the Kurdistan Region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD) arrested two ISIS arms smugglers in Erbil, according to a statement released on Thursday by the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant (SOJTF LEVANT), part of the US-led Coalition to Defeat ISIS. “Today the CTD conducted operations in the …

The State Department’s annual report on terrorism said Islamic State branches outside of Iraq and Syria caused more fatalities in 2020 than any previous year. The number of terrorist attacks increased worldwide in 2020 in part due to the spread of Islamic State (IS) branches and al-Qaeda affiliates, the US …

Lebanon’s interior minister on Wednesday ordered the deportation of non-Lebanese members of a Bahraini group after some of them held a news conference in Beirut, harming Lebanon’s ties with the Kingdom. Bahrain accuses the group of harboring terrorism. Bahrain’s government has denounced “the promotion of malicious allegations and causing harm …

An anti-ISIS coalition shot down a terrorist drone near a base in southern Syria this week, military officials said. Two RAF Typhoon FGR4s were patrolling over Syria and Iraq on Tuesday, as part of the global coalition against ISIS, and were ordered to investigate hostile drone activity near the Al …

In its annual terrorism report, the US State Department accused Iran of providing a safe haven for senior Al Qaeda members despite the regime’s public condemnation of the group. The report, released on Thursday, claimed senior Al Qaeda leaders are currently residing in Iran and “[facilitating] terrorist operations from there”. …

This paper assesses the risks to national and transnational security posed by foreign terrorist fighters and their families, and considers how global leadership and multilateral solutions are necessary to address them. The collapse of the Islamic State caliphate in March 2019, while a positive development overall for international security, has …

The U.S. Military Should Pull Back but Not Pull Out Since declaring his candidacy for president, Joe Biden, like his two Oval Office predecessors, has made it clear that he wants to rebalance the United States’ military presence in the Middle East. During the 2020 campaign, Biden pledged to “end …

Ankara’s controversial economic policy coupled with external forces portend a continuing deprecation of the Turkish lira that will only worsen inflation and other economic parameters. Turkey’s Central Bank lowered its policy rate by 100 basis points to 14% Thursday, delivering a fourth cut in as many months in line with …