Middle Orient

The Pentagon welcomed NATO’s increased contribution to training Iraq’s security forces. NATO has agreed to significantly broaden its military advising and stabilization mission in Iraq to roughly 4,000 troops, the alliance announced Thursday. “Today we decided to expand NATO’s training mission in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces as they …

There are signs that the Astana talks on the Syrian war — which began in 2017 and are sponsored by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran — have little prospect of making progress going forward.

Iran-backed militias, known as Fatemioon in Syria, have begun moving their weapons, ammunition, and rockets to the underground tunnels previously dug by the Islamic State (IS), a report said.

It is important to note that Israel did not stop the Palestinians in the past from holding presidential and parliamentary elections in 1996, 2005 and 2006. Israel did not even stop Arab residents of Jerusalem from running in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council election as candidates for Hamas, the Islamist …

The Syrian regime has imposed Islamic personal status laws on the Yazidi community, sparking outrage and fears for the ethnoreligious minority that faced genocide in neighboring Iraq. A Justice Ministry circular issued on Sunday ruled that the Yazidi minority were not exempt from Islamic personal status laws, essentially terming the …

The Air Force Intelligence Branch has issued a list of more than 100 wanted residents from the village of Kanaker in the western countryside of Damascus. The individuals are accused of causing the recent security tension in the village. Private sources said that the list includes the names of young …

Not a lot of time separates us from the next presidential elections in Syria, which are expected to take place next April. In the meantime, the Syrian regime has been trying to increase the number of measures it is taking to calm tensions in the southern regions of Syria, namely …

High-profile regime defector Manaf Tlass will head the Syrian Military Council, according to Zaitun Agency. The head of the Free Officers’ Association, Brig. Gen. Talal Farzat, emphasized in an exclusive statement with Zaitun Media Agency that the idea behind ​​the Military Council is both old and new, as it was …

A Russian soldier stands guard as troops accompany a convoy of displaced Syrian civilians leaving for their homes in the northern town of Ain Issa in the countryside of the Raqqa region. More than 387,000 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes since Syria’s civil war broke …

SOHR sources say that Russian jets continue their airstrikes on various positions in the Syrian desert, executing at least 130 airstrikes, in the last 24 hours, targeting ISIS positions in the Aleppo-Hama-Raqqah triangle and the deserts of Deir ez-Zor and Homs. Where a squadron of Russian fighter jets consecutively pounded …