Middle Orient

Turkey “expects” the Trump administration to grant it waivers from the US related to its purchases of Iranian oil and Russian air defences, a top aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

Iran’s lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill labeling U.S. forces in the Middle East as terrorist, a day after the U.S. terrorism designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard formally took effect, state TV reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week described a powerful Iranian military commander as a “terrorist,” while discussing options the U.S. government could have to further punish Iran for its destabilizing activities in the Middle East.

Libya’s UN-backed government says its military has shot down a fighter jet belonging to the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), led by strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose forces are fighting for the control of the capital Tripoli.

Benjamin Netanyahu — “Bibi” to both friends and enemies — will undoubtedly succeed himself as Israel’s prime minister after his recent electoral success and, in July, surpass David Ben-Gurion as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. But, unlike most genuinely successful leaders of democracies, his first priority will have to be avoiding …

Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism force targeted ISIS holdouts Thursday in the northern region of Hamreen, including a media center, more than a year after the country declared ISIS vanquished, Agence France Presse reported.

L’Irak a proposé aux pays membres de la coalition internationale antijihadistes de juger leurs ressortissants soupçonnés d’avoir rejoint le groupe État islamique (EI), en échange d’au moins deux milliards de dollars.

The Moroccan Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday the busting of terror cell made up of four suspects and led by a former fighter in Syria and Iraq.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah raised the prospect of retaliation by Iran and its allies over U.S. sanctions, saying on Wednesday that all options were on the table were Washington to take steps that “threaten our nation”.

Iran’s leaders have responded angrily to US President Donald Trump’s designation of its elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organisation.