Middle Orient

The Arab world was already badly divided when recent wars and military conflicts broke out between state actors and between them and nonstate actors in 2023. But paradoxically, these tremors have created conditions that led to almost unprecedented coordination and diplomatic activism among key Arab states, along with a willingness …

US and Jordanian forces have launched an operation against ISIS in Syria, killing at least five members of the extremist group including a cell leader, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. The US strikes overnight on Friday were a response to an attack in Palmyra last …

Syria has seized drones and explosives from a suspected ISIS hideout in Damascus, in a swoop it said “confirms” it is capable of fighting extremists. The raid, in which a suspected member of ISIS was arrested, was one of two against the group announced in the space of 24 hours. …

Latest Developments Erdogan Accuses Israel of Seeking ‘Fragmentation’ of Syria: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan labeled Israel the “primary obstacle” to a stable Syria on December 16, pledging that Ankara would continue to support the Ahmed al-Sharaa-led government responsible for ousting former dictator Bashar al-Assad from power in late 2024. …

While everyone focuses on tankers transferring the Iranian oil, a massive financial valve remains open to Tehran on NATO’s eastern border. On paper, Iran is entering its most restrictive sanctions environment since 2012. United Nations snapback has reactivated global measures on Iran’s energy trade, but Western enforcement remains partial. And …

A Druze poet and activist who has previously criticised local separatist militias has been shot dead in the east of Syria’s Suweida province A poet and political activist critical of local authorities was killed in Syria’s Druze-majority Suweida province on Sunday night by unknown assailants. It is believed that 48-year-old …

Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti has been assaulted seven times in Israeli prisons since the start of the Gaza war, according to prisoner rights groups. Senior Palestinian Fatah leader and longtime prisoner Marwan Barghouti has been subjected to seven “brutal assaults” inside Israeli prisons since the start of Israel’s genocidal war …

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I arrived at the Taj Hotel in Baghdad’s Jadriyah neighborhood at 6 a.m., worn thin by the long flight from Los Angeles. After sleeping until mid-afternoon, I stepped out into the 90-degree heat on a simple mission: find falafel, fries, and a place to exchange money. A local bus picked …