Middle Orient

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continue to plan to act independently and take out Iranian nuclear facilities if the upcoming Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) talks fail. Iran has stalled for five months on the resumption of talks which are scheduled to finally begin today. However, the talks between …

President Michel Aoun’s meetings in Doha focused on Lebanon-Qatar relations, soccer and the crisis between Lebanon and Gulf countries. Lebanese President Michel Aoun visited Qatar on Monday. Aoun met Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in the capital, Doha. The two discussed bilateral relations, and Thani expressed Qatar’s …

Thousands of migrants have gotten stuck at the Belarus-Poland border this winter, many of them Kurds from Iraq. Authorities from Baghdad and Erbil are continuing to repatriate migrants from Belarus. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in conjunction with the federal Iraqi government has returned 1,872 people from the eastern European …

The Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga forces suffer another attacked by Islamic State fighters. The Islamic State (IS) attacked Kurdistan Region security forces in northern Iraq again today. The assault occurred north of Kifri in the Diyala province. There were casualties among the Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga forces, the Erbil-based news outlet Kurdistan …

Israel’s leadership has ramped up diplomatic efforts to convince world powers to keep the sanctions on Iran in place and not give an inch during the renewed talks. As negotiators gathered in Vienna for talks with Iran on its nuclear program Nov. 29, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett addressed them …

The return to negotiations will be the first talks with Iran under new President Ebrahim Raisi. Iran and several world powers have restarted the talks designed to restore the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, officially the 7th round of these specific talks. The resumption …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted Ankara will reinstate its ambassadors in Egypt and Israel. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled on Monday that Turkey will seek to better its relations with Israel and Egypt after doing so with the United Arab Emirates. Last week, Ankara and Abu Dhabi inked …

In its first press conference, the special committee responsible for investigating the drone attack on the house of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi released new details and its first public report. Iraqi national security adviser Qasim al-Araji appeared at a press conference on Nov. 29 to unveil the first report …

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Tuesday it launched air raids on “legitimate” Houthi military targets in the capital Sanaa including a “secret” site belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, state TV reported. The coalition asked civilians not to gather around or approach potential targets. The Iran-aligned Houthis’ …

It is often claimed that Turkey made a definitive break with the West in the 2000s after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power. The argument is that by changing direction internally, Ankara turned away from what the West was hoping to achieve in terms of its relations …