Middle Orient

Back in 2016, Iran put forward a regional initiative to expand the Persian Gulf–Black Sea International Transport and Transit Corridor, which, in addition to the Islamic Republic itself, involves Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece. This multimodal corridor begins from the Gulf and southern Iran, heads northward …

Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has stepped down nearly nine months after he was tasked with forming the crisis-ridden country’s next government. On Thursday, Hariri told reporters that President Michel Aoun had not accepted his latest Cabinet lineup less than 24 hours after the three-time prime minister submitted the proposal. …

Iran has indicated that it will not return to talks aimed at a U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal until after a new government headed by President-elect Ebrahim Raisi takes office next month, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The United States and its European partners had been awaiting word from …

The explosion of a Hezbollah warehouse near a school, should it happen, would be half the size of the Beirut explosion of last year. The Israeli military on Wednesday shared intelligence of a possible target belonging to Hezbollah in the southern Lebanese village of Ebba in the Nabatieh Governorate. According …

The IRGC intelligence chief’s visit to Iraq last week followed one by top commander Ismail Ghaani. The intelligence chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) encouraged local militia leaders during a recent meeting in Iraq to increase their small-scale attacks against US positions in the country, Reuters reported today. …

The latest bombshell by fugitive Turkish crime boss Sedat Peker has stoked calls for an investigation. Fugitive Turkish crime boss Sedat Peker has dropped a new bombshell in his tell-all vendetta against Ankara, claiming that weapons were secretly distributed to members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) after …

Turkey is allegedly planning to use Syrian fighters in its proposed mission to guard and run Kabul’s airport, but this time recruitment is expected to proceed via private security firms. Turkey’s government appears to have learned little from the troubles it has faced for deploying Syrian fighters in the wars …

Businessman Yaqoub Abu al-Qia’an, who was briefly a Knesset candidate in right-wing Telem party, accused of providing information to Iranian intelligence via a contact in Lebanon A Bedouin Israeli millionaire who briefly ran for Knesset with former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon was charged on Monday with passing information to Iranian …

Slovenia’s prime minister and other former US officials also speak at virtual event held by Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. Former Obama and Trump administration officials as well as Slovenia’s premier attended a Sunday event held by the controversial Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e Khalq, leading to criticism. The organization’s Free Iran 2021 World Summit …

The kingdom’s decision to ban the import of produce from the government-held areas is viewed as a sign that the kingdom has not changed its position toward the Syrian government. Speaking to the local Al-Watan newspaper July 6, Fayez Qassuma, vice president of the Export Committee in the Damascus Chamber …