President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Astana, Kazakhstan, where both leaders attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit.Erdoğan invited Putin to Turkey, and Putin accepted the invitation during their meeting. The anticipated visit of the Russian president this spring was postponed. …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey stands in solidarity with Lebanon as tensions with Israel rise and called on regional countries to also support Beirut. Cross-border hostilities between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have escalated in recent weeks, fueling fears of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah. Shelling …

Moderate politician Masoud Pezeshkian won the Iranian presidential runoff election on July 5.[i] Iranian media reported that Pezeshkian received over 16 million votes, while his opponent, ultraconservative hardliner Saeed Jalili, received approximately 13.5 million votes.[ii] Pezeshkian and Jalili won approximately 10.4 million and 9.5 million votes respectively in the first …