Middle Orient

An apparent increase in drug trafficking into the country from both its eastern and western borders, with fallout from instability in Afghanistan and ‘mafia’ groups in Syria as well as use of illicit substances in Iraq, has raised concern. In early December, the directorate tasked with drug control in Iraq’s …

The longer runway at Khmeimim airbase in Syria gives nuclear-capable bombers a place to land, and is one more move in Russia’s plan to expand its capacities in new directions. The end of December is a special month for the Russian military. Every year at this time, practically all the …

The Arab coalition on Sunday released footage and pictures it said provided evidence of Hezbollah and Iran’s involvement in Yemen’s seven-year war and the use of Sanaa airport as a missile launch site. At a press conference in the Saudi capital, coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki showed footage of …

Shûrâ, Or The Principle Of Collective Deliberation When one evokes the relation between Islam and democracy, (1) the temptation is great to go to texts (Qur’an and Hadîth) and to Muslim political history of experiences of governance with analogies to modern pluralistic systems. (2) Hence the reformist currents of Islamic …

Navy ships assigned to U.S. 5th Fleet confiscated a stockpile of 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition in the North Arabian Sea from a stateless fishing vessel Dec. 20. U.S. Navy patrol coastal ships Tempest and Typhoon were conducting a search with embarked U.S. Coast Guard personnel …

Turkish police detained at least nine foreign nationals over their links to the Daesh terrorist group in Istanbul, security sources said Saturday. Anti-terror police squads launched an operation to nab the suspects, believed to be a part of groups planning attacks on behalf of Daesh, said the sources, who requested …

US-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria announced on Thursday that they had safely deactivated explosives that had been attached to a vehicle outside the city of Hasakah on the previous day. “On the 22nd of this December, the special units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defused a car bomb …

Turkey’s economic turmoil might challenge Ankara’s grip over opposition-held areas in Syria, where in-house rivalries among the armed factions over financial resources have escalated. With economic turbulence rattling Turkey’s economy, the question is rising of whether Ankara can maintain its grip on Syria’s opposition-held areas where the Turkish lira is …

Many Iran-backed militias rejected the results of the October election in which they performed poorly. Iraq’s Supreme Court today certified the results of the October elections. Judge Jasim Muhammad Abud announced the decision in a statement that was published by the official Iraq Media Network. Iraq held nationwide elections in …

Iraqi security forces have captured and killed a number of key Islamic State facilitators and others in the past month amid a US mission transition and concerns over coordination. Iraqi security forces continued their operations against Islamic State (IS) cells and sources of funding in December with a number of …