Middle Orient

These batteries will be employed in the defense of US troops against a variety of ballistic and aerial threats, the Defense Ministry said. Israel delivered the second of two Iron Dome defense system batteries to the US Army over the weekend, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.

Israel continues to operate its “war between the wars” campaign against Iranian activity in Syria with airstrikes in the city of al-Zabadani, located near the Lebanon-Syria border on Wednesday morning. This is the second instance of an Israeli attack against Iranian-affiliated positions in Syria in less than a week.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Saturday that he had reached agreement with the rival Hamas movement to hold presidential and parliamentary elections. Hamas did not immediately comment on Abbas’s announcement.

The Syrian government and Russian media sites are promoting a new agreement between Russia and the Syrian Defense Forces that guarantees the regime’s takeover of the Ain Issa area in northern Raqqa. Riyadh al-Khalaf, chairman of the Tell Abyad Military Council affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), denied in …

Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and other groups held the exercise to prepare for a future conflict with Israel. Palestinian armed groups conducted what was described as an unprecedented joint military drill in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

In the past few weeks, Ankara has made several overtures toward rapprochement with Israel, yet Jerusalem seems to be waiting for something solid. Multiple moves by Turkey in recent weeks indicate that relations between Jerusalem and Ankara may change, or that Turkey would like them to.

SDF commander Mazlum Kobane told Al-Monitor last month he hopes the Biden administration will double the US troop presence in northeast Syria. Northeast Syria’s Kurdish-led administration is calling on US President-elect Joe Biden to formally recognize its autonomous status within Syria.

Israel reportedly dispatched a submarine to the Suez Canal and the Red Sea in what has been taken as a clear warning to Iran not to escalate tensions at this sensitive time of transition.

An administrative Moroccan delegation arrived in Israel to reopen the liaison office following normalization of ties between the two countries.

The power-sharing agreement comes as Yemen’s Houthi rebels have already largely seized control of the country’s north Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi ordered the country’s new unity government to relocate to Aden after its members were sworn in during a ceremony in Saudi Arabia’s capital yesterday.