Turkey to gain from upcoming oil pact with Iraq

Turkey will gain from an expected oil pact with Baghdad that replaces a decades-old deal governing Iraq’s northern crude exports, analysts have said.

The agreement is due to be signed within a year. It will allow Iraq, Opec’s second-largest oil producer, to export a significant part of its crude production to Europe via Turkey through a pipeline network linking southern Iraqi oilfields with the Turkish border in the north.

Can Baghdad ever bring Iraq’s militias under state control?

Analysis: With US forces leaving Iraq, Baghdad faces a difficult choice between confronting powerful Iran-backed militias and absorbing them into the state

A relative pause in fighting between the United States and Iran that ended in early September has brought the region back into a state of geopolitical tension.

Trump and Xi: Managing Rivalry Before It Becomes Conflict

The Trump-Xi summit did not mark a US-China rapprochement, but it demonstrates that sustained diplomacy and strategic guardrails are essential to prevent intensifying competition from becoming direct conflict.

The recent summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Washington has demonstrated a significant paradox in contemporary international politics: the two superpowers remain strategic competitors, yet neither side could afford to let their rivalry spiral into confrontation. The Trump administration welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping, on his first state visit to Washington in more than a decade, with significant diplomatic warmth, but the substantive disagreements over diverse issues separating the two powers remain largely intact.

Gaza’s ‘Journalists’: When Journalism Becomes a Weapon of Jihad

How many of those described as “journalists” were also members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)?

The question has become particularly urgent after the release by the Israel Defense Forces of a database identifying 170 Palestinians killed during the war whom the IDF says were also members of Hamas, PIJ, or other terrorist organizations.

Ankara’s Chessboard: Why Turkey in a “Friendly” Wrapper Rubs Russia’s Nerve Endings Raw

Relations between Turkey and Russia have always been one of the most intriguing scenarios in the Great Game.

The leaders of the two countries maintain frequent contacts and “hotlines,” foreign ministries regularly consult on the situation in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and bilateral trade and energy cooperation continue to develop. However, under this wrapper of “friendly cooperation,” Ankara is moving along a long-established historical path—the path of the pan-Turkic dream and the expansion of regional influence. And this path, no matter how much Turkey declares it “non-confrontational,” inevitably collides with Russia’s strategic interests.

Israël envisage d’occuper Damas

Au cours des dernières semaines, j’ai remarqué quelque chose d’intéressant dans la presse israélienne. Les responsables israéliens de la sécurité affirment qu’Ahmed al-Sharaa, ou Abu Mohammad al-Jolani comme la plupart d’entre nous le connaissaient depuis de nombreuses années, reconstruit l’armée syrienne et utilise les ressources de l’État pour créer une grande armée permanente. Selon les évaluations de la sécurité israélienne publiées par le Jerusalem Post, Jolani utiliserait les recettes fiscales et l’aide internationale pour acquérir des armes, réhabiliter les infrastructures militaires et constituer des forces qui pourraient éventuellement remettre en question la liberté d’action militaire d’Israël en Syrie. Une autre analyse israélienne affirme même que Jolani veut transformer la Syrie en une puissance régionale capable de projeter sa force dans plusieurs directions, y compris éventuellement contre Israël.

From hilltops to houses: A new phase of Israeli settlement expansion

On August 9, 2026, Israeli settlers surrounded three houses in the Ras al-Ain area of Qusra, a Palestinian village southeast of Nablus in the West Bank.

The settlers pitched a tent just outside the homes, then cut their power lines and broke their water pipes. Fifteen people were living in the homes, including at least two children, at the time of the attack. Alarmingly, a month later, the families remain trapped in their homes.