Middle Orient

Turkey has restarted diplomatic contacts with Egypt, state-run Anadolu Agency and TRT stated on Friday. “We have contacts both at the level of intelligence and foreign ministries with Egypt. Diplomatic-level contacts have started,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency and TRT. Çavuşoğlu said …

Security sources reported on Friday that two Iraqi soldiers were killed and another wounded with ISIS sniper rifles in Diyala and Kirkuk Governorates. A security source in Diyala told Shafaq News Agency, that “ISIS elements attacked an army checkpoint in the village of Al-Khailania, north of Al-Miqdadiyah district with sniper …

Ankara is furious over a commemorative stamp design featuring a map of Iraqi Kurdistan that includes chunks of Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast provinces. Turkey lashed out at Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Wednesday over its plans to print a commemorative stamp to mark Pope Francis’ March 7 visit to Erbil, the …

The trilateral meeting between the countries is meant to push for a political solution to Syria’s 10-year-long conflict. The foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Qatar gathered in Doha today, the first trilateral meeting of its kind in which the parties stressed the importance of preserving Syria’s territorial integrity. Their …

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday said that Iran’s presence in Syria and Iraq is only to provide advice.In a speech today, Khamenei said that Iran’s presence in Syria and Iraq is for advisory support and not military, adding that Iran is present in the region at the …

The Russian Spring (RusVesna.SU) YouTube channel has released new video footage of the Russian Aerospace Forces targeting a jihadist base in the Idleb countryside. “The Russian army continues to destroy military facilities of radical Islamists in Syria. At the disposal of Russian Spring were new exclusive footage of the airstrike …

Flanked by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Abu Dhabi’s top diplomat criticized the US-led campaign to economically isolate Syria under President Bashar al-Assad. The United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister called for international cooperation with the government of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad after years of isolation imposed as a result of …

Sudan is changing its rules for Syrians wishing to reside in the country after years of being able to travel to Sudan without a visa, and the right to work, education and medical care. Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria a decade ago, over 11 million Syrians …

Earlier this month, a prominent researcher and security expert in Iraq, who was close to the new prime minister and to Western governments, was gunned down outside his home in Baghdad. While the identify of his assailants remains unknown, Hisham al-Hashimi had many enemies, given his history of speaking out …

Just days into the new year, Iran announced that “a couple of hours ago,” it had started enriching uranium to 20 percent—a level that experts say would put it within a six-month sprint of converting its entire nuclear stockpile to bomb-grade material. Tehran’s move Monday raises the pressure on President-elect …