Middle Orient

To win the next election, Erdogan must change the election laws but also find more popular political allies. His AKP party’s current coalition with the ultra-nationalists is becoming a liability for his goal of re-election in 2023. Since the last elections in 2019, two debates have dominated the Turkish political …

Erdogan’s failure to achieve his goals in the high-profile meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin shows that Turkey’s balancing act with Russia and the United States is on the verge of a collapse. Having been trapped in its balancing act between Russia and the United States, Turkish diplomacy is trying …

U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had a detailed discussion about the war in Yemen on Tuesday in a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a senior administration official said. The war, in which a Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis, has devastated Yemen’s …

Jordan fully reopened its main border crossing with Syria on Wednesday, the first time that the Jaber border crossing has been fully open since the start of Syria’s decadelong civil war. Arab states had cut ties with Syria during its civil war, The crossing was partially opened in 2018 after …

New measures restrict the entry of Syrian patients to Turkey by canceling free treatment in its state hospitals and forcing them to pay the full cost of treatment. Turkey has recently suspended the issuance of the temporary protection ID card — known as Kimlik — for Syrian refugees who need …

Jordan closed the Jaber border crossing in August due to security concerns amid fighting in southern Syria. Jordan originally supported the Syrian opposition in the civil war but has moved closer to the government recently. Jordan will reopen its border crossing with southern Syria this week, Jordan’s Interior Ministry announced …

The International Atomic Energy Agency claims that Iran has limited its access to the Karaj nuclear facility, where surveillance cameras have been damaged. The spokesperson for Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, has responded to the International Atomic Energy Agency on limitations on access to parts of Iran’s nuclear program. …

Delegations from Kurdish-held northeast Syria and the Turkey-backed Syrian National Coalition will meet separately with US officials this week. Two Syrian political movements that offer competing visions for the country’s future are paying official visits to Washington this week. Both the US-backed Kurds and the Turkey-supported opposition are there to …

In the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, glossy election campaign posters are plastered alongside jungles of sagging electrical wires lining the alleyway to Abu Ammar’s home. But his mind is far from Iraq’s Oct. 10 federal election. The 56-year-old retired soldier’s social welfare payments barely cover the cost of food …

The foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq made agreements on issues relating to the export of gas and electricity from the Islamic Republic to its western neighbor. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein held a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in …