Middle Orient

If Abbas is really interested in returning to the negotiating table with Israel, he needs to decide whether he is on the side of his peace partners in Israel or his political enemies in Hamas. Abbas needs to decide whether he belongs to the pro-peace camp in Israel and the …

Der türkische Präsident Recep Tayyip Erdogan fordert Europa heraus. Mit seiner Ermunterung hat ein türkisches Gericht am Freitag entschieden, den seit vier Jahren ohne Urteil inhaftierten Kulturförderer Osman Kavala weiter im Gefängnis zu halten. Der Europarat hatte für diesen Fall mit einem Ausschlussverfahren gegen die Türkei gedroht, das in der …

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 …

Armed group ISIL still poses a threat in several provinces in Iraq with hit-and-run attacks, kidnappings, and roadside bombs. Five Peshmerga fighters were killed in an attack by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Sunday. The attack – which also wounded …

Also, Al-Monitor’s on-the-ground reporting on the security situations in Syria and Iraq, including the impact of the Turkish lira crisis on Idlib. Islamic State ‘entrenched as low-level insurgency’ The most recent report from the Pentagon’s Inspector General on Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led diplomatic and military operation against the Islamic …

The SDF and the Coalition forces conducted “operations in Ar Raqqah Province resulting in the detention of a key Daesh (ISIS) facilitator” The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested an alleged ISIS facilitator in Raqqa in a joint operation with the US-led coalition on Tuesday. Today @cmoc_SDF and Coalition forces …

At home in Helsinki, Ilona Taimela scrolls through hundreds of WhatsApp chats with her former pupils — pictures of animals, maths sums and simple sentences in English and Finnish. Last year, the teacher gave lessons to Finnish children imprisoned about 3,000 kilometres away in Syria’s Al Hol displacement camp — …

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continue to plan to act independently and take out Iranian nuclear facilities if the upcoming Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) talks fail. Iran has stalled for five months on the resumption of talks which are scheduled to finally begin today. However, the talks between …

President Michel Aoun’s meetings in Doha focused on Lebanon-Qatar relations, soccer and the crisis between Lebanon and Gulf countries. Lebanese President Michel Aoun visited Qatar on Monday. Aoun met Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in the capital, Doha. The two discussed bilateral relations, and Thani expressed Qatar’s …

Thousands of migrants have gotten stuck at the Belarus-Poland border this winter, many of them Kurds from Iraq. Authorities from Baghdad and Erbil are continuing to repatriate migrants from Belarus. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in conjunction with the federal Iraqi government has returned 1,872 people from the eastern European …