Middle Orient

The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced sanctions on Christopher Henzel, the US ambassador to Yemen. Iran on Wednesday slapped sanctions on the US envoy to Yemen, a largely symbolic gesture that followed the Trump administration’s sanctioning of the Iranian ambassador to the Houthi rebels.

Egypt appears to be leading Arab efforts to bring Damascus back to the Arab League and find a political solution to the Syrian crisis, in a bid to confront Turkey’s military ambitions in Syria.

Turkey and Azerbaijan deny that Syrian mercenaries were used in the recent offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh but four Syrians have told the BBC that after enlisting for sentry duties in Azerbaijan, they were unexpectedly thrown into battle on the front line.

Head of the government of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani revealed on Wednesday that the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist organisation had brought additional forces from Syria and did not leave the district of Sinjar in the Nineveh governorate.

Iran-trained Syrian fighters were killed in an attack by the Islamic State in a dawn attack on the desert outpost outside the Euphrates Valley town of al-Mayadeen reports Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

From the lack of a clear Israeli strategy on the Iran nuclear deal to the new Middle East approach of President-elect Joe Biden. What are the several geostrategic Middle East challenges Israel will have to face with the changing administration in the United States?

There has been no ambassador in either country since May 2018, when Ankara withdrew its envoy over escalating attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and Washington’s decision to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem.

At a summit in Brussels Thursday, European leaders appeared ready to impose sanctions on Turkish individuals and companies linked to energy-prospecting activities in the eastern Mediterranean Sea that have raised regional tensions over the last year.

The situation in Syria remains unchanged. The Russian military continues to conduct reconnaissance activities in the Idlib and Aleppo regions. According to the Russian media AviaPro, Russia is preparing a large-scale operation against a camp near the Syrian-Turkish border.

A UN analysis of photos of four anti-tank guided missiles in Libya found that one “had characteristics consistent with the Iranian-produced Dehlavieh” missile, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reported to the Security Council.