Middle Orient

Iraq will head to the polls on Sunday for early legislative elections, the fifth in the past 20 years. The poll comes two years after mass protests brought down the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi, but not before security forces and paramilitary groups killed more than 600 protesters. Angry Iraqis …

Iran’s chief diplomat, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said his country will “not tolerate geopolitical change” in the region. Iran’s new foreign minister said Wednesday that Tehran has “serious concerns” about Israel’s actions in the Caucasus region. Iran’s chief diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the comments while in Moscow for talks with his Russian …

Iran’s posturing could further cement Baku’s defense ties with Israel. Azerbaijan is considering buying Israel’s Arrow-3 missile defense system amid tensions with Iran, according to Israel Hayom newspaper. The move would be a major step in typically quiet Israel-Azerbaijan defense ties. Tensions between the neighbors have flared in recent days …

The men partook in the 2014 attack by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra on the Lebanese army in the town of Arsal, according to the Lebanese military. A Lebanese military court sentenced a group of Syrian Jabhat al-Nusra fighters to death Tuesday for the killing of Lebanese soldiers. The Permanent Military …

IDF chief of staff responds to Iran’s demand that Israel’s attacks on nuclear sites stop if UN wants full inspection access to resume. The Israeli military’s chief of staff said operations targeting Iran’s nuclear program will continue, rebuffing a demand by Tehran that they halt if the United States and …

Israel has warned Egyptian intelligence that Hamas operatives in the West Bank are fueling demonstrations and conducting lone-wolf operations there. Hamas operatives seem to have renewed their activity in the West Bank in response to Israeli raids in the wake of the recapturing of six Palestinians who escaped an Israeli …

For much of the Syrian civil war, the southern city of Deraa and the surrounding Houran Plains, an agricultural region near the Jordanian border, were divided between government forces and armed rebels. Fighting raged back and forth, killing thousands. It was not until Russia backed a government offensive in 2018 …

Blinking under the garish lights of a hotel ballroom in southern Iraq, Wael Makhsusi argued his case to a young audience. Microphone in hand, the engineer in his 30s stood onstage in Basra with other novice candidates in Sunday’s parliamentary election. Among them were independents and hopefuls drawn from the …

“Karabakh belongs to the Republic of Azerbaijan and it is part of Islam”, “Karabakh belongs to the Republic of Azerbaijan and must be returned to it”; these are just some of the comments made by Iranian Shiite clerics last year who are close to government institutions in the Iranian political …

Tehran wants to send a message to Baku that “we know what you are doing.” And Iran has done this before. Iran’s media has begun to up the rhetoric against Azerbaijan, with a headline claiming that Baku has “denied the presence of the Zionist regime near the border with Iran,” …