Middle Orient

Syria’s Interior Ministry has announced a new string of foiled Hezbollah assassination plots against high-level figures, attacks on minority figures and civilian targets, and weapons transfers, alleging the group and Iran-backed actors are seeking to undermine local security across the country. The nature of alleged Hezbollah network raids and planned …

The Iran war has widened differences between Saudi Arabia, which favors accommodation with Iran and Iran-backed regional actors, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which believes military confrontation with Iran and its allies can produce transformative change. Most of the Arab Gulf states are following Saudi Arabia’s lead by advocating …

Both Tehran and Washington are conducting military operations and threatening escalation to enhance their strategic leverage in negotiations to end the conflict. The brinkmanship renders a restart of major conflict as likely as an agreement that would resolve the major outstanding issues, including a full reopening of the Strait of …

As Israel entrenches its occupation of south Lebanon behind a so-called ‘yellow line’, villages are being systematically erased, and residents displaced Qlayaa, Lebanon – The birds are still singing in south Lebanon, but they are faintly heard over a soundscape that – after two and a half years of war …

Despite Washington’s push to reach a broader peace arrangement between Beirut and Tel Aviv, it has apparently failed to restrain its ally, Israel. Hours after the US announced a 45-day extension to the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, Israeli strikes once again pounded southern Lebanon. The US hosted two days of direct talks …

US prosecutors say Mohammad Al-Saadi, a Kataeb Hezbollah member and IRGC operative, coordinated close to 20 recent attacks in Western countries claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya The US Justice Department on Friday announced the arrest of a senior Iraqi militia commander for terrorism against Jewish targets on behalf of …

Security official indicates Gaza City airstrike eliminated terror group’s chief; former hostages hail reports of death of the man responsible for their abduction and captivity Israel said that it had targeted Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip and the head of the terror group’s military wing, …

China-linked ships were permitted through the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces as Trump and Xi held what the US president described as “extremely positive”. Iranian media reported that Tehran allowed Chinese vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as US President Donald Trump praised “extremely positive” talks with …

The UAE and Israel are making conflicting claims about an alleged visit by Israeli PM Netanyahu to the Gulf state – what do we know so far? Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly greeted in the UAE ‘with the honour of kings’ [Getty] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday …

The first gathering in a decade by the Palestinian Authority’s dominant party will cast light on a post-Abbas future and governance in Gaza, among other issues. On May 14, Fatah launched its eighth General Conference, which will culminate in the election of officials to lead its various governing bodies. Because …