Middle Orient

Diminished by law enforcement and military operations and the COVID-19 pandemic, ISIS and Al-Qaeda now act through affiliates in local conflicts. The rise of white supremacy and anti-government violent extremism will require greater attention from counterterrorism actors.

The Russian ambassador to Damascus, Alexander Yefimov, has said that Syria is currently living in the most difficult social and economic situation since the beginning of the crisis in the country, due to the pressure of sanctions against it by a number of countries.

The US announcement that it will focus on fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) remnants in Syria rather than guarding oil fields in the region could force Turkey to rethink its strategy in the war-wracked country, analysts believe. In a break from the Trump-era policy, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on …

US forces in Syria are focused on fighting the remnants of the Islamic State group and are not guarding oil fields as previously ordered by ex-president Donald Trump, a US defense official said Monday.

Russia is not pleased with the pace set by Damascus at the Constitutional Committee talks in Geneva. It is also awaiting the development of US President Joe Biden’s policy towards Syria and Washington’s broader relations with Moscow.

On Wednesday, the president of the Syrian Negotiations Committee Anas al-Abdah announced that he sent a letter to members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) stressing that the Damascus government delegation has been the obstructive party to the Committee’s work, and that the UNSC should assume its responsibility because “wasting …

On Monday, the Iran-Syria Joint Chamber of Commerce expressed its support for the work of the Iranian Trade Center in the Damascus Free Zone, as an entity responsible for the networking and interaction between Syrian and Iranian companies and products, in order to establish joint investments and economic, commercial, and …

Turkey, in recent years, has put high on its agenda the development of its military products, especially when it comes to aerospace industry. Dreaming of a return to the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has embarked on ambitious projects to develop the drone industry, and …

The US military is building and expanding two runways in the eastern Syrian provinces of Hasakah and Deir Ezzor. The US forces are building a 1,400-meter-long runway at a US military base in the Omar oil field in Deir Ezzor province, and new troops and equipment are reportedly being transferred …

In 2021, Iraq more than any other time after the 2003 is facing economic and budget crisis. Meanwhile, political factions blame Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s economic performance and say that he did far below enough to get the country out of the current economic predicament.