Middle Orient

There is an unmistakable shift in American politics regarding Palestine and Israel, a change that is inspired by the way in which many Americans, especially the youth, view the Palestinian struggle and the Israeli occupation. While this shift is yet to translate into tangibly diminishing Israel’s stronghold over the US …

Iraqi parliamentary elections are scheduled for October 10, 2021. The elections were moved forward from May 2022, following a popular protest that erupted in 2019, which led to the resignation of the government of Adel Abdul-Mahdi. In these elections, for the first time, a “rights movement” party will run for …

Where the US goes, much of the Western world follows – willingly or reluctantly, depending on circumstances. From the first days of his presidency Joe Biden started implying that the Middle East did not feature among his top concerns. As a consequence the region has been sinking down the policy …

Moscow is intensifying its airstrikes on Islamic State targets in the Syrian desert. ALEPPO — Islamic State attacks in the Syrian desert have escalated over the past two weeks, causing heavy losses among the Syrian government forces and their allied militias. Russia has intensified airstrikes on IS positions in support …

Arab-Israelis are divided over the government’s decision to bring in the IDF and the Shin Bet to help police control rising crime and violence in Arab towns. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett convened the first meeting of the ministerial team for combating crime in Arab society on Oct. 3. This team, …

Iraqi national security forces working closely with local tribal fighters say they have managed to kill two key Islamic State figures involved in planning suicide attacks. A man driving a car loaded with explosives who was thought to have been about to attack a police station detonated himself in the …

Iran wants Russia to know that it is concerned by both the presence of Israel-Azerbaijan relations as well as Turkey’s moves to open up a land corridor. Iran is worried. It sees an emerging alliance between Turkey and Azerbaijan as well as between Azerbaijan and Israel as potentially cutting it …

“They said they are going to stay in Syria and will not withdraw – they will keep fighting Islamic State,” Ahmed said. “Before they were unclear under Trump and during the Afghan withdrawal.” A leading Syrian Kurdish politician said on Thursday the United States will stay on in Syria to …

Three rounds of Saudi-Iranian talks were held in Iraq in the months before Iran’s new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, took office in August. Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia have gone a “good distance,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told a news conference in Beirut on Thursday, referring to efforts …

Iran’s drone program, unlike its nuclear weapons program, is not secretive. The Islamic Republic openly brags about its drone capabilities. Iranian drones are an emerging threat to the Middle East. In 2019, Iran used a combination of drones and cruise missiles to attack the giant Abqaiq oil-processing facility in Saudi …