Middle Orient

In addition to providing discounted crude of a quality desired by American refiners, the resumption of oil flows via the ITP is already showing promise of furthering U.S. policy toward partners and adversaries alike. On November 24—two months after the reopening of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP)—an oil tanker laden with …

Toplines Former senior Assad regime officials are likely funding and equipping clandestine networks in Syria to conduct insurgent activity against the Syrian transitional government. Reuters reported on December 5 that former Military Intelligence Chief Major General Kamal Hassan and Bashar al Assad’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf, have formed rival Alawite militias …

Toplines Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba head Akram al Kaabi threatened on December 3 to attack US Special Envoy to Iraq Mark Savaya in response to Savaya’s “blatant interference in Iraqi affairs.”[1] Iranian-backed Iraqi militias are unlikely to attack Savaya due to the potential repercussions that such an …

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Washington and its allies are waiting for Beirut to acknowledge the difficult but unavoidable truth: that war will resume unless serious action is taken to target all the pillars of Hezbollah’s power, bolster Shia political alternatives, and otherwise satisfy the ceasefire’s most important requirement: disarming the group. Although major military …

Latest Developments 2 Attacks in a Day: Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in a West Bank stabbing attack on December 2. The stabbing occurred when an IDF patrol was dispatched to the Israeli West Bank community of Ateret, near Ramallah, to investigate a suspicious individual who stabbed the soldiers …

The Syrian-Iraqi border is witnessing a new phase characterized by strategic competition and ideological disparity, and its importance goes beyond being just a bilateral border to turn into a geopolitical hotbed of tension that is likely to influence the future regional landscape. Despite the current relative calm, this stability remains …

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Chaos erupted among government agencies in Iraq on Thursday after Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis appeared briefly on a list of terrorist groups facing sanctions, before it was quickly retracted. A terrorist listing would be a surprise move against Iranian allies with connections in Iraq. The Official Gazette published on …