Middle Orient

Blinking under the garish lights of a hotel ballroom in southern Iraq, Wael Makhsusi argued his case to a young audience. Microphone in hand, the engineer in his 30s stood onstage in Basra with other novice candidates in Sunday’s parliamentary election. Among them were independents and hopefuls drawn from the …

“Karabakh belongs to the Republic of Azerbaijan and it is part of Islam”, “Karabakh belongs to the Republic of Azerbaijan and must be returned to it”; these are just some of the comments made by Iranian Shiite clerics last year who are close to government institutions in the Iranian political …

Tehran wants to send a message to Baku that “we know what you are doing.” And Iran has done this before. Iran’s media has begun to up the rhetoric against Azerbaijan, with a headline claiming that Baku has “denied the presence of the Zionist regime near the border with Iran,” …

The meeting followed recent tensions between Armenia’s rival, Azerbaijan, and Iran. The Iranian and Armenian foreign ministers met in Tehran on Monday. Iran’s Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed bilateral relations with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, who is on a two-day trip to Iran. They also spoke about roads connecting Iran and …

Turkey’s foray into the South Caucasus seems to be paying off, as the country nibbles away at Russia’s long-held hegemony in the region. It is only a year since Turkey demonstrated its new power in the South Caucasus, providing significant military and other help to Azerbaijan to achieve its irredentist …

What’s at stake in Iraq’s elections on 10 October? These elections are the first test of Iraq’s political institutions since countrywide protests paralysed the country in 2019-2020. Those protests forced the government elected in 2018 to step down and pass a new elections law, which brought the polls originally planned …

A Hamas delegation will reportedly discuss a possible prisoner exchange deal, among other issues, during a visit in Egypt this week. A Hamas delegation headed by the movement’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, visited Egypt on Sunday to discuss a number of issues, with the movement announcing the visit the night before. …

Over 500 Israelis were exposed in the massive “Pandora Papers” exposé revealing offshore dealings of hundreds of officials and businessmen. Former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat and Jordanian King Abdullah II were among the hundreds of politicians, billionaires, celebrities, drug dealers, royal family members, and religious leaders exposed by the “Pandora …

“This was not a criminal incident, and businessman Teddy Sagi was not the target of the attack,” said the spokesman. Iran was behind the attempt on Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi’s life last week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s spokesman Matan Sidi said Monday. “Contrary to some of what was published [Sunday] …

Using offshore tax havens, King Abdullah II bought most of the homes – from luxury London apartments to a sprawling LA mansion – following the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ Newly leaked financial documents have revealed that the King of Jordan has secretly spent more than $100m on property listings in the …