Middle Orient

Israel needs to prepare for this new reality where its ability to combat Iranian forces and proxy groups is concerned. Speculation about the extent to which the incoming American administration will appease Iran has been rampant. But US President-elect Joe Biden’s picks for relevant top positions don’t seem to leave …

Café Milano, the upscale Italian restaurant in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, was the scene of an important dinner on Monday night: Mossad chief Yossi Cohen sat down to eat with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and the two were spotted by journalists.

The Yemeni interior minister said the Houthi militias, helped by Iranian and Lebanese experts, were behind the strikes that targeted Aden airport on December 30. The results of investigations by the Yemeni government about the Aden airport attack underline the danger posed by missiles Iran has supplied to the Houthis, …

The Lebanese are worried that their country will meet the fate endured by Iraq, Syria and Yemen, where the Iranians and their militia proxies are playing a major role in the civil wars currently plaguing these countries. The Lebanese are demanding an end to Iranian occupation of their country; they …

Palestinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act passed House unanimously in 2019 but stalled in Senate Bipartisan American legislation directing the US president to sanction international individuals and agencies tied to the Gaza-based Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups was re-introduced in the House on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Moscow on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations with his Russian counterpart, according to the Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry.

The Afghan Fatemiyoun also denied members were hit, but said Syrian army personnel were killed. A deputy commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) denied that any deaths had resulted from a string of airstrikes believed to have been carried out by Israel in Syria …

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi rejected the invitation for meeting French, German, Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers in Cairo, citing the nationwide lockdown in Israel as an excuse.

The military exercise in Iran’s central desert comes as the Trump administration makes a final push to punish Tehran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Friday fired a “barrage” of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and launched new bomb-carrying drones in a military drill held in the country’s central desert of …

One expert noted that the Russia and Syrian regime attempts to push the SDF to withdraw from the Ain al-Issa area and shelling by Turkish-backed rebels is “giving ISIS cells greater ability to conduct attacks deep behind the SDF lines.”