Middle Orient

Ahead of anticipated trip by Bennett to Cairo, foreign minister and Egypt intelligence official discuss ways to expand bilateral ties Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met with Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate chair Abbas Kamel in Jerusalem on Thursday and stressed that Israel would not tolerate continued rocket fire from the Gaza …

Air raids came after Lebanese media outlets had reported low-flying Israeli jets over Beirut. Israeli air raids targeted the Damascus and Homs regions in Syria late on Thursday, official Syrian news agency SANA reported, saying that the country’s air defences intercepted several Israeli missiles. SANA cited a Syrian military source …

President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday urged European countries to take responsibility for migrants coming from Afghanistan, adding Turkey had no intention of becoming “Europe’s migrant storage unit” amid turmoil in the country after the Taliban’s takeover. Since the Taliban entered Kabul over the weekend, scenes of chaos have unfolded as …

The delivery could help Lebanon deal with its fuel crisis, but it may also put Lebanon at risk due to US sanctions on Iranian fuel, one rival politician said. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday Iranian fuel would sail to Lebanon “within hours.” “Our first ship has completed all …

Erdogan also said he stands behind a peaceful resolution to the violence in Tigray. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered Thursday to mediate a bloody border dispute between Ethiopia and Sudan. Speaking alongside Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed following their meeting in Ankara on Wednesday, Erdogan also said his government supports …

A Turkish airstrike has killed four members of a US-backed Syrian Kurdish force. Four members of a US-backed Syrian Kurdish force were killed in a Turkish air attack on the town of Tal Tamar Thursday, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces, part of an escalating multi-pronged campaign against Kurdish militants …

Amid typical governmental absenteeism, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah announced on Aug. 19 that the party had secured fuel shipments from Iran. He asserted that the first of many fuel tankers would set sail to Lebanon that same day. Hours later, U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea declared that the U.S. …

The two countries in the Middle East with the highest growth expectations for 2022 are Israel and Egypt. Fitch Solutions estimates that MENA-wide GDP will grow by 3.6% in 2021, after a contraction of 4% in 2020. Egypt and Israel are the only countries within the region expected to grow …

One of the most consequential changes in the Middle East’s geopolitical map is happening at the water’s edge. Along the entire eastern rim of the Mediterranean basin, global and regional actors are engaging in a spate of port capacity expansions, new private port construction, and the sell-off of major state-owned …

While visiting Israel last week, CIA director Bill Burns told Prime Minister Naftali Bennett the U.S. was concerned about Chinese investments in Israel, particularly in the tech sector, and involvement in major infrastructure projects, Israeli officials tell Axios. Why it matters: That’s the highest level at which the Biden administration …