Middle Orient

A slew of new sanctions in Trump administration’s final weeks could complicate Biden’s pledge to rejoin the Iranian nuclear agreement.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally said Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP party, the country’s third biggest, should be banned for separatism – a move the HDP’s co-leader condemned on Thursday as a bid to silence six million voters.

A new report from Human Rights Watch describes squalid conditions at a facility detaining mostly Ethiopian migrants in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is detaining hundreds of migrants in inhumane, degrading conditions at a deportation center in Riyadh, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report that alleges guards have also …

Egypt and Iraq are expanding defense industry ties in a sign of deepening engagement among Cairo, Baghdad and Amman. Egypt is working to enhance its cooperation and relations with Iraq, notably in the military field.

Reported border clash worsens conflict between Kurdish factions in triangle where US, Turkish and Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish forces come into play. Tensions between the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have sharply escalated amid claims that a PKK-linked Syrian militia that is backed …

Iran’s supreme leader said revenge for the killing of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani is a definite plan, as he called on regional nations to push for the ouster of US forces.

TATNEFT Company suspended its operations in Libya following the revolution of 17 February, 2011 – NOC A Russian oil company intends to resume production and exploration operations in a number of sites in Syria and Libya, after its activities were halted following the events of the 17 February Revolution.

Military operations are still underway in scattered areas of the Syrian desert, as ISIS tries to inflect heavy human and material losses on regime forces through ambushes, explosions and surprise attacks. These military operations are concentrated in Aleppo-Hama-Al-Raqqah triangle, while fighting subsides in the deserts of Al-Raqqah, Homs and Deir …

Turkey will not reverse its purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems and will take reciprocal steps after evaluating U.S. sanctions imposed over the acquisition, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.

Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.