Middle Orient

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Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, all of which have been Iran’s “frenemies” since 1979 and whose military-strategic interests are increasingly converging, are expected to exploit any large-scale instability that could follow another potential round of US strikes if Trump changes his mind. The Wall Street Journal recently published a …

Syrian transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that Russia has a historic role in Syria’s unity and stability, and in the stability of the wider region. He pointed to an upgrade in economic cooperation between the two countries. Al-Sharaa expressed hope …

Toplines Iran is likely trying to deter US military action against Iran by deploying forces and conducting naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS)-affiliated outlet Defa Press claimed on January 29 that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy deployed “hundreds of fast, missile-launching, …

EU foreign ministers agreed Thursday to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist” group, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she said. Meeting in Brussels ahead of the terror designation …

The government’s gains in the northwest will have an echo nationally, but will they alter Israeli calculations? By crossing the Euphrates River in recent days, Syrian government forces broke through a decade-old boundary that had defined Syria’s conflict, behind which the Kurd-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had sustained a de …

Ankara may seek to annul a maritime deal with Cyprus and expand its influence in the next parliament. Since the downfall of the Assad regime in Syria on December 8, 2024, the expansion of Türkiye’s influence has been repeatedly highlighted by U.S. and Israeli officials. President Donald Trump regularly points …

Beirut and Baghdad are both watching how the other seeks to give the state a monopoly of weapons. In the aftermath of the recent conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon’s ongoing push to impose a “state monopoly of arms” has ceased to be a purely Lebanese story. When, on the …

The United States and Iran are not on the brink of open war. There is no countdown, no formal ultimatum, no declared strike order — but Donald Trump’s latest warning has undeniably raised the temperature. The relationship is entering a phase where the margin for error is shrinking. Danger no …

Iran’s foreign minister warned Wednesday its forces would respond immediately and forcefully to any US military operation after President Donald Trump declared time was running out to avoid one, but did not rule out a new deal on Tehran’s nuclear program. The Islamic republic’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi warned its …