January, 2023

• 7 January

  Turkey’s overtures to Assad all about crushing Syrian Kurds’ autonomy

  

  Turkey’s security establishment remains immutably opposed to the consolidation of any form of Kurdish autonomy in Syria that would mirror Kurdish gains in neighboring Iraq. Turkey’s overtures to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with last week’s meeting in Moscow between the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers, continue to …

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• 7 January

  Syrian opposition-controlled areas protest Ankara-Damascus rapprochement

  

  Syrians are speaking out against a potential Turkish-Syrian rapprochement, with opposition-held areas holding vigils and protests across Aleppo and Idlib governorates. Protesters held a vigil in Idlib on Tuesday in protest of the Turkish rapprochement with the Syrian government. Protests have been taking place across different Syrian cities in Aleppo …

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• 7 January

  Iraq’s Sistani calls on world not to abandon Afghans

  

  Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, asked the international community and the Muslim world to stand with the people of Afghanistan following a meeting with Afghan Shiites. A group of Shiite clerics from Afghanistan met with Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, this week, as he urged the …

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• 7 January

  Iraqi prime minister sees tensions spike with political allies

  

  Local militias have resumed threatening the US presence in Iraq this week, leaving Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani in a difficult position. Sudani was nominated by the Coordination Framework, a bloc that includes Iran-backed militant groups and allied political groups. The alliance provides essential political support to Sudani who relies …

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• 5 January

  Iran, Syria, Yemen: Twitter’s collaboration with the US military in information warfare

  The Cradle has previously deconstructed the Pentagon’s online bot and troll operations targeting Iran. These wide-ranging efforts, over many years, sought to destabilize the Iranian government by disseminating and inciting negative sentiment against it, on a variety of social media platforms.

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• 5 January

  Abandoning Afghanistan is dangerous for its neighbors

  Following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban-led schismatic government in Kabul appears to have reached a diplomatic impasse. It seems like its neighbors, who had previously been eager to restore normalcy to the turbulent region, have given up on the Islamic …

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• 5 January

  US base in Syria struck by missile barrage in largest attack ‘of its kind’

  

  Local sources confirmed that there were likely casualties among US forces, as the missiles reportedly struck the facility’s housing section Washington’s military base in the occupied Al-Omar oilfield in Syria’s eastern governorate of Deir Ezzor, came under intense rocket fire late on 30 December in what has been described as …

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• 5 January

  IRGC arrests seven riot leaders linked with UK intelligence services

  

  The IRGC’s intelligence agency is currently identifying other members of this network that are operating both inside and outside the country Seven individuals active during the recent riots in Iran’s Kerman Province with ties to the United Kingdom were detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on 25 December, …

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• 5 January

  Protests expand against SDF and US occupation in Syria

  

  According to the Syrian news agency SANA, demonstrations against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US occupation in Syria continue to grow. The protests, which are still ongoing on 27 December, demand the expulsion of US forces and their regional allies from the Deir Ezzor province. Activists quoted …

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• 5 January

  Iran will receive dozens of Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets

  

  Experts say US sanctions failed to reach their ultimate objective of forcing Iran into major political and military concessions The Islamic Republic of Iran will receive an entire squadron of Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia as Tehran and Moscow strengthen their defense and economic collaboration in defiance of broad …

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