Middle Orient

It may not have been planned or coordinated but efforts by Middle Eastern states to dial down tensions serve as an example of what happens when big power interests coincide. It also provides evidence of the potentially positive fallout of a lower US profile in the region. Afghanistan, the United …

In Mosul’s Old City, the rule of the Islamic State group is not a distant memory of horrors long past. On every block are reminders: bombed out houses, piles of rubble and families toiling daily, just to survive. “An IS family lived over there,” says Sahara Mahmoud, a mother of …

Ayse Ozdogan, an imprisoned end-stage cancer patient, has been denied release, despite a recommendation by a government-run hospital. A well-known saying of the Prophet Mohammed intones, “Allah has no mercy for him who has no mercy for his fellows.” It appears to be lost on Turkey’s Islamist Justice and Development …

Israel is hoping that Sudan will soon finalize the normalization process it agreed upon several months ago in the framework of the Abraham Accords. Sudanese Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari met Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll and Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej in Abu Dhabi Oct. 13 in a rare …

Tens of Kurdish residents of disputed Kirkuk were arrested and later released after celebrating the victory of Kurdish parties in the election. The heads of the Kurdistan Region and federal governments in Iraq attempted on Wednesday to defuse election tensions in the disputed city of Kirkuk.

In a joint press conference with his counterparts from Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Blinken said the United States is prepared to pursue “other options” if Tehran doesn’t resume compliance under the nuclear deal. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned “time is running short” for Iran to re-enter the …

Hezbollah blamed the Christian political party the Lebanese Forces for the attack. Several people were killed in Beirut Thursday in a shooting at a protest. A total of six people have been confirmed dead so far in addition to 32 wounded in relation to the shooting in south Beirut’s Tayouneh …

Erdogan’s revisionist foreign policy looks squeezed between the Eastern Mediterranean anvil and the Syrian hammer. Despite the longstanding alliance and close military partnership between Turkey and the United States, the relationship has always been troublesome. For some time now, pundits and Turkey experts have tended to speculate on “who lost …

A car bombing in the northern Syrian city of Afrin on Monday killed six people, including at least one Turkey-backed rebel fighter, a war monitor said. An AFP video journalist saw civil defence members douse the charred remains of a car with water, as rescue workers carried away what appeared …

Just last week Erdogan boasted about potential new defense deals with Russia, including aircraft purchases. Turkey has requested to purchase 40 US-made F-16 fighter jets and dozens of modernization kits for aircraft it already owns, according to reports in both the Greek and the Turkish press. News of the request, …