Middle Orient

The U.S. military has said it has no plans to change its mission to defeat the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Syria despite Iran’s new defense deal with Damascus that is designed to bolster ties between Washington’s two foes there.

Daniel Burke was accused of terrorism offences after volunteering to help the Kurdish YPG fight against Isil in Syria.

The fallout from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s warning that Washington will do all it can to prevent Iran selling oil to Hezbollah in Lebanon continued this week.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is intensifying efforts to open a new border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, local sources and Arab media reported this week.

Sanctions on Syria aim to protect Syrian civilians from the regime but may end up hurting them instead. Washington should further clarify humanitarian exemptions, specify benchmarks related to civilian protection and offer temporary easing of sanctions as long as these are met.

Russian forces on Saturday took control of a major oil field in the Deir Ez-Zor governorate, in eastern Syria, after removing regime forces from it.

Iraq’s new government failed an initial test of its efforts to gain control of the Iran-backed Shia militias that have been attacking U.S. forces and installations throughout Iraq.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with support from the US-led Coalition, carried out several security operations against the so-called Islamic State in the northern Syrian Deir al-Zor and Hasakah provinces this week.

When Italian authorities announced last week that they had seized 15.4 tons of counterfeit Captagon produced by ISIS in Syria to fund terrorism, it was lauded as one of the largest drug busts in history.

Lebanese businessman and accused Hezbollah financier Kassem Tajeddine arrived in the capital Beirut following his compassionate early release from US detention, three years into a five-year sentence for evading US sanctions.