Middle Orient

Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is coming to Turkey on Thursday, a visit that follows a recent high-level visit from the central administration of Iraq to Turkey, which signaled a thaw in strained relations with Baghdad.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad fired Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil for reportedly meeting with U.S. official in Switzerland.

US Vice President Joe Biden discussed with President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani the challenges facing Iraq, it was announced here Monday evening.

Arab foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on November 3 to discuss backing the Syrian opposition at a proposed Geneva peace conference, a top Arab diplomat said Monday. Asked whether the ministers would discuss providing backing for the opposition groups, Arab League deputy chief Ahmed Ben Hilli told reporters “the meeting on Sunday will look into this matter.”

UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, in Syria Tuesday on the most sensitive leg of a regional push for peace talks, has warned of the ‘Somalisation’ of the war-ravaged country. His grim warning came as fighting prevented chemical weapons inspectors from visiting two sites, although UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the mission to destroy Syria’s arsenal …

Turkey’s National Security Council (MGK) met today to discuss the Syrian crisis, increasing violence in Iraq and the latest developments in the Middle East.

Syria has filed details of its poison gas and nerve agent program and an initial plan to destroy it to the world’s chemical weapons watchdog, the organization said yesterday. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement that Syria completed its declaration as part of a …

The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria is to arrive in Damascus on Monday as part of a tour aimed at garnering support for proposed peace talks, a government source said.

A series of attacks including car bombings in Baghdad, an explosion at a market and a suicide assault in a northern city killed at least 66 people Sunday across Iraq, officials said, the latest in a wave of violence washing over the country. The attacks come as Iraq’s prime minister …

A mortar bomb exploded today in the Ceylanpınar district of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, killing at least one person, according to initial reports. The bomb was fired during clashes on the Syrian side of the