Middle Orient

On June 29, 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in al-Sham (ISIS), was recorded on video speaking at the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq. (“Al-Sham” is the traditional Arabic name for the Levant.) He declared himself to be the caliph or divinely inspired absolute ruler of …

The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) publish the Iran Update, which provides insights into Iranian and Iranian-sponsored activities that undermine regional stability and threaten US forces and interests. CTP-ISW publishes the Iran Update daily. Click here to …

More than a half century after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 242—which established the principle by which Israel would give up territory it gained in the war in exchange for peace and security—the Israelis and the Palestinians have made no meaningful, much less …

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Key Takeaways: Iran: Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Larijani appointed Ali Bagheri Kani as the SNSC deputy for international affairs on August 29. Larijani may have appointed Bagheri Kani due to his close ties to Paydari Front leader Saeed Jalili as part of an effort to reduce recent …

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Mosul has reclaimed its spirit with the completion of a UAE-led project that restored historic landmarks and erased some of the last remnants of ISIS destruction. The seven-year project in the 2,500-year-old Iraqi city involved the reconstruction of Al Nuri Mosque and its leaning minaret, along with the churches of …

During the Syrian Civil War, which broke out in 2011, the area of south Syria became an arena for the activity of Salafi-jihadist terrorist organizations in addition to Hezbollah and the Iranian Qods Force, which sought to establish another front against Israel based on local operatives and Shi’ite militias.The fall …

Ahmed Mouaffaq Zaidan, the newly appointed media adviser to Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, has published an article on Al Jazeera Net urging the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood to dissolve itself. This call cannot be dismissed as a personal opinion from a former Brotherhood-affiliated journalist. Coming just days after …

On Wednesday, 27 August 2025, a group of Alawite activists based abroad announced the formation of the “Political Council for Central and Western Syria” (PCCWS). In a founding statement published via a recorded video on its official Facebook page, the council called for the establishment of a federal region encompassing …