Middle Orient

For much of the Syrian civil war, the southern city of Deraa and the surrounding Houran Plains, an agricultural region near the Jordanian border, were divided between government forces and armed rebels. Fighting raged back and forth, killing thousands. It was not until Russia backed a government offensive in 2018 …

A group of factions affiliated with the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army have formed a new alliance known as the Syrian Liberation Front intended to end the power struggle between Turkey’s allied factions in northern Syria. On Sept. 9, five factions affiliated with the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army announced that they …

In his first foreign visit as Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi will sit down with Russian and Pakistani leaders amid new regional dynamics triggered by the US departure from Afghanistan. President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran arrived in the Tajik capital Dushanbe Thursday to attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization …

Turkey is seeking to downplay the jihadi threat that its troops face in Idlib, the last Islamist stronghold in Syria, opting to turn the spotlight to the Kurds instead. After losing three soldiers in a bomb attack in Idlib, the last bastion of Islamist rebels in Syria, Turkey pounded Syrian …

TankerTrackers.com has visual confirmation that an Iranian tanker is discharging gasoil in Syria’s Baniyas port which is destined for neighbouring Lebanon, the online oil shipment tracking service said on Tuesday. “Unable to deliver directly by sea to Lebanon due to sanctions, the vessel went instead to Baniyas, Syria, for land …

The United Arab Emirates’ economy minister will lead a high-level delegation to Britain this week, the ministry said on Sunday, as the Gulf state seeks to deepen trade ties. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri and the delegation will meet British ministers, officials and representatives from the private sector to discuss …

Behind closed doors, a meeting is being held in Amman between international stakeholders to discuss normalization with Syria, according to Nedaa Post. Confidential sources revealed to Nedaa Post that an important meeting is held in Jordan revolving around the Syrian issue. The meeting is attended by European and American representatives, …

Last week, the Energy ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon met in Amman, to discuss a plan to transmit Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity to Lebanon, which is suffering from a severe shortage in electricity and fuel. This comes after the first official Lebanese visit to Syria since the …

The future of Algeria’s gas pipeline which supplies southern Spain via Morocco is shrouded in mystery as the diplomatic row between Rabat and Algiers persists and the contractual deadline for using the transit pipeline looms. Yesterday, Algeria’s state-owned oil company, Sonatrach, announced that it had increased the annual transmission capacity …