Middle Orient

In mid-March, Turkey and Egypt confirmed they’d had their first diplomatic contact since breaking off relations in 2013. Though the talks were described by Egyptian sources as preliminary, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying, “Contacts at the diplomatic level have started.” The thaw comes after a decade …

Since his sweeping overhaul of Turkey’s political system in 2017, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cemented his near-total control over the country. Despite the worst electoral setback of Erdogan’s career in the Istanbul mayoral election in June 2019, as well as a tailspinning economy exacerbated by the fallout from the …

One question has been irking Turkish commentators since January: why won’t U.S. President Joe Biden speak to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? All the key world leaders have had phone conversations with the new U.S. president—Russia’s Vladimir Putin included—but Turkey’s president has been given the cold shoulder. Erdoğan must …

Iran-linked armed groups have over the past year tightened and consolidated their grip on a key border area between Iraq and Syria, preventing journalists from entering and local residents from farming their land. Roughly a dozen young men in black, olive green and camouflage mull around below the arches of …

Informed Iraqi sources said that the Sadrist movement has begun to prepare for the upcoming Iraqi elections and that it will present itself to the US as a “moderate” movement and the best option in the Iraqi Shia community. The sources told The Arab Weekly that the Shia political spectrum …

The Iranian Army displayed a series of new homegrown equipment in a military parade marking the Army Day. The vehicle parade, held to mark the Army and the Ground Force Day, saw various units of the Iranian Army showcasing its achievements on Sunday morning.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified that Iran has started enriching uranium up to 60-percent purity level, a measure the Islamic Republic had promised to take following an Israeli act of nuclear terrorism against it. The United Nations nuclear watchdog verified the development on Saturday, and Director-General Rafael …

Depuis son avènement en 2017, Mohammed Ben Salman (MBS) place ses fidèles au sein de l’appareil d’État saoudien. Et a singulièrement rajeuni le visage institutionnel du royaume.

The Islamic Republic has improved the range and guidance on its drones. Iran on Sunday marked National Army Day with a military parade. The annual event was more limited than usual due to social distancing and the pandemic. Of interest was a parade of dozens of types of drones. Iran …

A day before the attack, a shadowy group told Sabereen news that it had targeted “Mossad” in northern Iraq. A drone attack last week on Erbil in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region has all the hallmarks of an Iranian-backed attack. Drones have been used by Iran’s proxies in Yemen, and …