Middle Orient

The government’s push into the northeast is reshaping Syria’s balance of power, leaving the SDF’s future and the country’s reunification hanging in the balance Deir Az-Zour, Syria – Two nail-biting hours after the deadline for last week’s ceasefire in northeast Syria expired on Saturday, Syria’s Ministry of Defence announced that …

Toplines Iran may be attempting to deter a possible US strike by moving forces and conducting a live-fire naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on January 30 that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy will hold a two-day live-fire naval exercise in the …

Sunday will mark 47 years since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran after 14 years of exile. As excited revolutionaries awaited his plane’s arrival at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, the country’s new supreme leader was asked by an accompanying journalist what he felt about finally coming home. “Nothing,” was Khomeini’s cryptic …

Farmland that once bloomed with fruit and vegetables now destroyed by war or cut off by Israeli barrier At dawn in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, Ahmad Ghaben walks towards his field with his sons. It lies only 500 metres from the “yellow line”, behind which Israeli forces are stationed. Every …

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“They came in the night after Assad fled,” said Mohammed, a resident of Kodena, a small village perched upon rolling hills of rocky soil, about a mile and a half east of the unofficial border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Israeli forces “rode in jeeps, hummers, armored personnel carriers, …

The SDF has suffered a series of defeats to government forces in recent weeks, but the future for Syrian Kurds need not be bleak, say analysts At the time of writing, the demise of Rojava appears imminent, a project intended to provide an egalitarian space in Syria away from the …

Turkey has banned all gatherings in a southeastern province for six days following an outpouring of anger over an offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters Turkish officials in the southeastern Mardin province bordering Syria on Monday announced a six-day ban on gatherings following an outpouring of anger over an offensive against …

A conversation with Karim Sadjadpour and Robin Wright about the recent protests and where the Islamic Republic might go from here. Aaron David Miller: What’s happening with the protests? Robin Wright: When we look at this moment, we need to put it in context. The revolution in 1978–79 took fourteen …

In a recent parliamentary session, Iranian lawmakers donned military uniforms and vocally condemned the US and Israel, reflecting Iran’s defiance amid external pressures and domestic protests. In a dramatic parliamentary session broadcast live on state television, Iranian lawmakers wearing military and Revolutionary Guard uniforms shouted ‘Death to America!’ and ‘Death …