Middle Orient

Structural problems continue to keep Turkey from putting in place a comprehensive strategy to combat Islamic State elements in the country, despite numerous operations against networks linked to the radical Islamist group. Turkish security operations against networks linked to the Islamic State (IS) appear on the rise, but how efficient …

Critics say the arrest of Syrian citizens and their extradition to Turkey violates Turkish and international humanitarian law. The rendition of Syrian nationals to Turkey, where they are prosecuted and jailed on thinly evidenced terror charges, has returned to the spotlight with the life sentencing by a Turkish court of …

The Abraham Accords didn’t just seal a wary detente. It cemented Israel’s first regional partnership. The scenes since September 2020 have been scarcely believable. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been thronging the malls and beaches of Abu Dhabi and Dubai; Emiratis have posed for selfies in Jerusalem; Israeli DJs …

Our colleague Odai Al Zoubi wrote the following on his Facebook page: “The real tragedy for the Syrians in Denmark is that not being expelled back to Syria means that they will remain imprisoned in Denmark, under the mercy of a fascist, ignorant and chauvinistic group of politicians. The Syrians …

Days before a new round of discussions in Astana between Iran, Turkey, and Russia, and in parallel to talks about Turkey’s fear of a military operation by the Syrian army in Idleb, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced a new agreement between the two …

ETHIOPIA Federal troops left Mekelle, capital of the northern Tigray region, as Tigrayan forces advanced on Monday. Interim administrators appointed by Addis Ababa after its soldiers ousted Tigray’s regional government in November had already departed over the weekend. Crisis Group expert Will Davison says these stunning developments sink the federal …

Real rapprochement between the US and Turkey may have to wait the result of Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections in 2023. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had his first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden on June 14 on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels. Since Washington …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held talks on Wednesday with King Abdullah before the Jordanian monarch’s key visit to Washington. The king will be the first Arab leader to meet at the White House with President Joe Biden and his team. Two Jordanian army helicopters flew to Ramallah to transport Abbas …

Raisi’s election, “engineered to guarantee his victory,” looks suspiciously like a ploy by Iran’s Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei to terrify the American negotiators into capitulating to Iran’s demands even faster and more recklessly, to avoid negotiating with an opponent more uncompromising than the one with whom they are negotiating at …

These [Palestinian] leaders have turned the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank into a police state where political opponents are beaten to death, arrested, tortured and intimidated. The crackdown was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the West — until the death of Banat. It was ignored …