Middle Orient

The US withdrawal may have spurred Iraq to consider purchases from Turkey and Pakistan, according to report by the Pentagon’s Inspector General. The United States and NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan this summer may have encouraged Iraq’s government to consider weapons purchases from Turkey and Pakistan, according to an unclassified US …

Jeanine Antoinette Plasschaert, special representative of the secretary-general for Iraq, held talks with the head of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Qais al-Khazali, to settle the election results crisis. Jeanine Antoinette Plasschaert, special representative of the secretary-general for Iraq, has attended last night, Nov 18, the meeting of Coordination Framework that includes …

Home Secretary Priti Patel described Hamas as “fundamentally and rabidly anti-Semitic” and said there’s no difference between its military and political wings. The British government is set to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization, joining the United States, Canada and the European Union in fully banning the Palestinian militant group. …

Sadr calls for forming majority government as the Iraqi President Barham Salih hosted a meeting with the prime minister and the judiciary head to discuss the current political deadlock and present initiatives for it. Amidst the political deadlock following Iraq’s elections on Oct. 10, Iraqi President Barham Salih hosted a …

Erdogan’s push for lower interest rates despite Turkey’s tumbling currency and soaring inflation is an economic gamble that he is unlikely to win. Turkey’s central bank cut its policy rate by 100 basis points to 15% Thursday, ignoring alarm over the country’s nosediving currency and soaring inflation. The third rate …

Azerbaijan’s blockading of free passage from Iran to Armenia and its taxation of every Iranian truck making the trip north to Armenia via the roadblocks Azerbaijan set up has prompted a wave of furious protest in Iran. For weeks, Iranian media reflected the rage in the country over these moves …

After suffering grievously under ISIS, and during the battles to defeat it, Raqqa is being rebuilt. The calm is tenuous, however. The U.S. and partners should work toward long-term stability in Syria’s north east, through investment and talks about sustainable governance and security arrangements. Principal Findings What’s new? Two years after …

Tasnim news agency reported the blast “caused small tremors” but no casualties. State media outlets reported that an oil pipeline in southern Iran exploded on Wednesday, marking the latest in a series of explosions and fires reported across the Islamic Republic this year. The Iranian semi-official news outlet Tasnim reported …

The recent summit of Turkic-speaking states has fueled Ankara’s ambitions to lead a Turkic regional economic and security complex, but major geopolitical, economic and institutional hurdles remain. The eighth summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, known as the Turkic Council, held in Istanbul last week was a …

The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq said its constituents were lured into emigrating by criminal smugglers. Hundreds of people returned to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from Belarus today after attempting to cross into the European Union. More than 400 migrants arrived at Erbil International Airport from the Belarusian capital …