Middle Orient

One year ago today, U.S. Special Operations Forces hunted down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who died after detonating a suicide vest. Core ISIS still has access to hundreds of millions of dollars and maintains connections to middlemen and front companies across the Middle East.

It was a bit quiet for a few months. But now military tensions in the controversial Syrian province of Idlib are on the rise again. The Russian Air Force killed about 80 fighters loyal to Turkey in an attack this week.The attack on a training camp for the Failak al …

The US-led Global Coalition against ISIS increased its military points and forces deployed east of the Euphrates for the third consecutive day, including in al-Hasakeh and the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. The third military convoy of the Global Coalition arrived from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, through the Semalka border …

The Turkish government is silent on yesterday’s attack “on Syrian rebels”, who are being trained by the Turkish military, commented on October 27 the Turkish journalist Ragyb Soylu. Soylu is an interesting resource as he has good access to information from the Turkish government.

The Iranian Missiles Were Confiscated and the Iranian Petroleum Was Transferred From Ships in International Waters The Justice Department today announced the filing of a complaint to forfeit two shipments of Iranian missiles that the U.S. Navy seized in transit from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to militant groups …

When in September 23, 1991 the Zheleznovodsk Declaration, as the first important mediation effort in the Karabakh conflict, was issued, an Azerbaijani journalist described it as “a light seen in a needle hole”. Now after three decades, the conditions dominating Karabakh conflict and the prospect for peace are still like …

What’s new? The devastating blast in the Beirut port on 4 August 2020 was only the latest, and most terrifying, sign of the political bankruptcy of Lebanon’s ruling elites. These politicians have driven the country to the brink of ruin, as the banking sector collapses and COVID-19 spreads faster.

The fighting on Iran’s northwestern border has begun to alarm officials who are attempting to mediate a cease-fire between the two sides. As the battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues on Iran’s northwestern border, Iranian military officials have warned about the escalation as government officials travel to the neighboring countries …

Center-left politicians and former Knesset members are advancing an initiative for a Jewish-Arab party. In three rounds of elections last year, Israel’s center-left bloc campaigned on the notion of dissociating itself with the country’s Arab citizens. In an effort to sway right-wing voters to switch allegiance to the center-left bloc, …

As Turkey conducts simultaneous campaigns in different theaters — including assistance to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict — Moscow must be tempted to exploit the turbulence to extract concessions from Ankara.