Middle Orient

The two-day visit in Rabat of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is not only historic diplomatically, it also cements growing trade relations between the two countries. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid arrived Aug. 11 in Rabat for a two-day visit. It is the first official visit by an Israeli foreign minister …

Ankara believes it has reaped strategic benefits from military involvement in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh. Yet it has paid a price as well, discomfiting both allies and adversaries. Now, Turkey hopes to rebuild ties so as to consolidate its new gains. Since 2016, when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan survived a …

Iran has a new president, consolidating the hardliners’ control over the centres of power. What will he do about the country’s numerous crises? One answer is clear: the 2015 nuclear deal’s fate remains the most pressing issue for Tehran and its foreign interlocutors. What’s new? Ebrahim Raisi has assumed Iran’s presidency …

On August 11, 2021, Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Lebanese Hizbullah, warned of psychological warfare against resistance factions in Lebanon and elsewhere, stressing that there should be an effort to expose it.[1] His statement was part of a speech he delivered in the southern suburbs of Beirut on the third night …

In a BBC Arabic TV (U.K.) report, which was aired on August 19, 2021, leaders of pro-Iran militias talk about their activity on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border. Ahmad Al-Maksusi, Secretary-General of the Sayiid Al-Shuhada Brigades militia, said that the Iraqi militias were the ones who targeted American forces …

A senior European Union official says Iran is ready to resume suspended nuclear talks as soon early September, Western news agencies are reporting. AFP and the dpa news agencies reported on August 7 that representatives of the country have given assurances in recent days that the talks will be resumed …

A multi-billion-dollar logistics project to rival the Suez Canal has left Iraqi opinion divided. Proponents say the $7 billion port project at Al Faw, near Basra, which will be linked an overland route to Turkey by rail, would make the port city a gateway to Europe. But critics say the …

Visiting Israel for the third time, Bahrain’s undersecretary for international relations at the Foreign Ministry, Sheikh Abdulla bin Ahmed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, met with President Isaac Herzog, visited the Peres Center for Peace and innovation and even went diving in the Mediterranean. Visitors to the Peres Center for Peace …

Pentagon allegation comes as Iranian and Saudi officials are reportedly preparing to meet in Baghdad later this month Tehran has been sending increasingly complex weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels even as Iranian officials have engaged in separate talks with the United States and Saudi Arabia about reducing tensions in the …

Security forces affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forced gas stations to close in areas controlled by Turkish-backed factions and set up a temporary checkpoint there. Well-informed sources told Al-Monitor that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s security apparatus has shut down several gas stations near the Ghazawiya crossing in the western countryside of …