Middle Orient

Much of the Middle East is suffering from water scarcity issues amid extremely high temperatures in the summer. Residents protested a lack of water in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region on Wednesday, according to local media outlets. The demonstration came amid wider water access issues in the region. Dozens of people in …

UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen said Syrian civilians living under a government siege in the southwestern city are suffering from shortages of fuel, food and medicine. The United Nations’ special envoy for Syria on Thursday expressed concern over the “alarming situation” in Daraa, the birthplace of the Syrian …

Summary Irregular warfare (IW) is increasingly common in the 21st century and the U.S. must learn from its successful experiences with it and apply those lessons to great power competition. For the past two decades the CIA and Army Special Forces have demonstrated how to leverage interagency relationships and apply …

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 …