Middle Orient

Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to lead the State Department, has worked alongside Biden for nearly two decades. President-elect Joe Biden named foreign policy veteran Antony Blinken as his pick for Secretary of State on Monday, tasking a trusted aide with fulfilling his campaign pledge to reassert America’s standing …

Clashes between Kurdish fighters and Turkey-backed opposition gunmen in northern Syria left at least 18 fighters dead in some of the most intense fighting in weeks, an opposition war monitor and a Kurdish news agency said Tuesday.

Les invectives à répétition dont le président turc Erdogan abreuve Emmanuel Macron ont sans doute une visée politique: faire de la Turquie une puissance mondiale et de lui-même un nouveau calife. Elles sont aussi le reflet de son caractère profond, celui d’un homme élevé à la fois à l’école islamique …

The Syrian regime “continues to allow Iran and its proxies to use its territory… to entrench its presence in Syria.” The United Nations Security Council must demand Iran’s ouster from Syria and condemn attacks by its proxies against Israel from that neighboring territory, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan …

Strikes reportedly targeted Iranian, Hezbollah targets; 8 pro-Iranian fighters said to have been killed. Syria has blamed Israel for a series of airstrikes on locations south of the capital Damascus and on the Golan Heights late Tuesday night.

Human rights activists have called for the arrest of Bassam Haji Mustafa, a militia leader who now lives in Paris and has styled himself as a political activist reports Etihad Press.

Northern Raqqa has experience a surge in violence, with the Syrian Democratic Forces targeting Turkish-backed groups and regime forces being hit by Turkish drone fire reports The Levant News.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan, said no meeting between Saudi Arabia and Israeli officials took place. Saudi Arabia is denying reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Gulf kingdom on Sunday.

In their briefly secret meeting in Neom, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed on the common threat from Iran, but did not make progress toward normalization.

Major foreign companies left Iran after US President Donald Trump two years ago abandoned Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and restored economic sanctions. Iran expects foreign companies to return to the country if US sanctions are lifted under President-elect Joe Biden and some firms have made initial contacts …