Middle Orient

Syrians have established nearly 14,000 companies in Turkey. Syrian investors pumped approximately 58.7 million Turkish liras (about $7 million) into 124 companies during the first quarter of this year, according to statistics published May 1 by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey. While this was only a …

Escalation with Hamas arrives exactly at the moment when the anti-Netanyahu bloc is trying to cobble up a “government for change.” The current round of violence that erupted May 10 between Israel and Hamas has two unusual aspects. The first is unprecedented. For the first time ever, a relatively minor …

In a meeting with a powerful parliamentary commission on the recently leaked audiotape of himself, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he would not run for president. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke at parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee meeting regarding the leaked audio that has …

The murder of a prominent activist in Karbala has triggered protests and calls for answers. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the southern Iraqi city of Karbala on Sunday, with some targeting the Iranian Consulate following the assassination of a well-known Iraqi activist by unknown gunmen. Ehab Wazni …

Ahrar al-Sham, which was once one of the largest factions of the Syrian armed opposition in Idlib, has formed a new leadership council that is being perceived as a coup against the movement’s political leaders, who fear the group’s integration into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Ahrar al-Sham, which is affiliated with …

Turkey appears reluctant to back down from its military posture in Libya, even as its normalization bid with Egypt depends greatly on whether the two sides find common ground in the Libyan conflict. Turkey and Egypt held their first high-level meeting in eight years last week, but Ankara has shown …

Opposition group says the person who was wounded worked for the Hezbollah terror group on the Syrian Golan An Israeli helicopter bombed an alleged Hezbollah site on the Syrian Golan Heights, injuring one person, in a rare daytime strike on Monday, according to Syrian sources. The Israel Defense Forces refused …

Tel Aviv Municipality opened bomb shelters amid concern that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will try to launch rockets toward the center of the country on Tuesday. Two women were killed and more than 90 people were injured on Tuesday after rockets, fired from the Gaza Strip, slammed into a number …

Registration kicked off in Iran on Tuesday for candidates to run in the Islamic Republic’s upcoming presidential election, scheduled for June. The field is wide open as the incumbent, President Hassan Rouhani, is not allowed to run due to term limits for the job. There has been little public interest …

A US Coast Guard ship fired some 30 warning shots in the Strat of Hormuz after 13 ships belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Navy sailed menacingly close to it and other US ships in the strait. The incident reported on Monday is the third time that Iranian vessels have …