Middle Orient

Thirteen countries from an international coalition to defeat Daesh met Thursday to declare they have taken back more than 99 percent of the territory once held by the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and his Canadian counterpart, Harjit Sajjan, who co-hosted the meeting in …

Only three months ago Turkey and its NATO ally the United States had too many issues about which to disagree: They had major divergences over Syria; they had different views on Turkey’s plans to deploy the Russian-made S-400 air defense system on NATO soil; they had mutual sanctions on top …

A Kurdish-led force backed by a US-led anti-Daesh coalition said on Sunday that it was resuming its offensive against the Daesh group in eastern Syria. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish alliance, had announced it was suspending its operation on Oct.31 after Turkey shelled Kurdish militia posts in northern …

Iraqi troops destroyed 10 hotbeds of Islamic State during a wide-scale military operation in Diyala province, a security source said on Tuesday. Speaking to Baghdad Today website, the source said that a military operation was launched on Monday to hunt down the remnants of the Islamic State extremist militants in …

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior (MoI) said on Tuesday that they had arrested a high-ranking leader of the Islamic State (IS) known as “Abu Ammar” southeast of Kirkuk Province amid the terrorist organization’s continued sporadic attacks in the country. “Through field follow-up, the Intelligence Divisions of the Federal Police… were able …

Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit urged on Sunday Libyan parties to reach a consensus on political, constitutional and electoral steps aspired by the Libyan people. Aboul-Gheit called on the Libyan political parties to overcome the current political impasse and division in the war-torn Arab country, AL spokesman Mahmoud Afifi …

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command has indicated readiness to face dangers of Islamic State on the borders with Syria. In a statement, Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasool, the spokesperson for the command, said, “The Iraqi-Syrian borders are protected by the joint troops of army and al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) as …

 Turkey, pursuing its own Islamist agenda and trying to rival Saudi influence in the Sunni world, is just too happy to have discredited the Wahhabi royals.  Turkey’s message to the Western world was: See the difference between our peaceful Islamism and rogue-state Islamism? Stop discrediting us for our …

 As Mahmoud Abbas was busy praising the Saudis for their “fairness, values and principles,” the London-based Action Group for Palestinians of Syria issued a statement in which it accused the Saudi authorities of preventing Palestinian refugees from entering the kingdom.  Many Arabs and Muslims can hardly afford to …

Iraq’s parliament elected a veteran politician as the country’s new president on Tuesday, a step toward forming a new government nearly five months after national elections.