Middle Orient

The Committee also approved $50 million under the Economic Support Fund for the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act. The House Appropriations Committee approved on Thursday the 2022 State and Foreign Operation fiscal bill, including $3.3 billion in US security assistance to Israel, as agreed to in …

The deputy head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog IAEA is to visit Iran for “routine” matters and no talks are planned, Iran’s envoy said on Saturday according to state media, as the agency awaits a reply from Tehran on an expired monitoring deal. In late June, the International Atomic …

Israeli security officials estimate that Iran is behind the attack on the vessel * No injuries have been reported as a result of the attack. A cargo ship previously owned by an Israeli businessman was struck by an “unknown weapon” in the northern Indian Ocean, causing a fire to erupt …

Russia first unveiled a ‘Security Concept for the Persian Gulf Region’ in mid-2019, in the aftermath of a series of dangerous and destabilising incidents including tanker seizures, sabotage attacks, and the shoot down of a $200 million US spy drone over Iranian airspace – which nearly prompted Washington to launch …

Turkey’s president is trying to sound more helpful to the West. But his broader policy objectives have not changed. On 14 June, US President Joe Biden met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels. Ankara had long anticipated the meeting, as the transfer …

Iraq remains a struggling nation confronting enormous, social, economic and reconstruction challenges yet progressing in critical areas such as resettling its displaced population and preparing for national elections this fall, two ministers of the Baghdad government said. The current government, which assumed power a year ago in the wake of …

Lebanon, unlike many other countries, is actually ruled by a conglomerate of political figures and business elites and organizations. Therefore, a change in Lebanon can neither be about a single politician or party nor can it be led by one political group. In the past 15 years, there were several …

In a scene reminiscent of the uprisings that swept the Middle East 10 years ago, Palestinian protesters took to the streets over the weekend, chanting, “The people want to bring down the regime.” The recent death of activist and Palestinian Authority critic Nizar Banat while in the custody of Palestinian …

Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has died a few days back. The death-news pulls back the lie the US political leader uttered and sold forcefully around the world. That was not a petty lie. That was a devastating lie – creating a premise for an imperialist invasion of a …

MILITARY AFFAIRS: A month and a half after Guardian of the Walls, it’s back to ‘normal’ for the IDF on the Gaza border. A month and a half after Operation Guardian of the Walls, the border between Israel and Gaza is quiet but tense. The stores and roads are open …