Middle Orient

Those who support a terrorist organization that targets a NATO ally should not be a part of the security bloc, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. In a briefing, the ministry underlined that Turkey continues to share the values ​​and responsibilities of NATO and remains at the center of the alliance’s …

Syrian and Russian warplanes on Tuesday carried out a joint military drill amid increasing Israeli airstrikes, Syria’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. It was the first such exercise since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began more than three months ago. In mid-February, before the Russian invasion on February 24, the …

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Ankara in an effort to stave off a global food crisis by restarting Ukrainian grain exports along a sea corridor. The UN’s plan to do so was “reasonable,” Çavuşoğlu said, and the talks were fruitful, but …

Lead figures in the Assad regime’s Qatirji oil-smuggling network were among those sanctioned. Members of the Riyadh-based Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), which includes the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, blacklisted 13 individuals and three organizations for financing terrorism on Monday. Among …

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham continues to restrict humanitarian organizations operating in its areas of control in northwestern Syria. Through its Salvation Government, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, has been seeking to fully control the humanitarian aid that is being provided to the displaced in Idlib province …

Receiving Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu maintains that the creation of a safe maritime corridor for Ukrainian grain exports should be accompanied by the easing of sanctions against Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated his country’s “understanding” of Turkish security concerns along …

US and European acquiescence in Turkey’s long-standing refusal to honour Kurdish ethnic, cultural, and political rights has come home to roost with Turkish opposition to Finnish and Swedish NATO membership. The opposition has sparked debates about Turkey’s controversial place in the North Atlantic defense alliance. Turkey’s detractors point to its …

Both sides have up held parts of the bargain but the reprieve in violence is fragile. Washington cannot ignore its own role moving forward. Yemen’s two month ceasefire is set to expire today. Will the warring parties agree to extend it? It looks like it.*According to Al Jazeera on Thursday …

MBS is playing hardball with the United States, and the White House is just letting him win. Why? Last night, the New York Times broke the news that President Biden plans to travel this Summer to Saudi Arabia, effectively signaling the administration’s intent to end its paltry efforts to correct …

The Lebanese government invited on Monday a U.S. envoy mediating between Lebanon and Israel over their disputed maritime border to return to Beirut as soon as possible to work out an agreement amid rising tensions along the border. The invitation for Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at …