Orientul Mijlociu

In addition to providing discounted crude of a quality desired by American refiners, the resumption of oil flows via the ITP is already showing promise of furthering U.S. policy toward partners and adversaries alike.

On November 24—two months after the reopening of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP)—an oil tanker laden with crude from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and sailing from the Turkish port of Ceyhan discharged at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port terminal. Although U.S. oil imports are generally driven by private trade and pricing dynamics, this particular shipment would not have been possible without a U.S.-facilitated interim deal in September under which Baghdad, KRI officials in Erbil, and international oil companies (IOCs) operating in northern Iraq agreed to reopen the ITP after a halt of more than two years.

The warning came a month after sources in the Northern Command told Walla that Israel was seeing an increased threat from the country.

US Envoy Tom Barrack warned Baghdad not to involve itself in Israel’s war against Hezbollah, telling officials the country may face Israeli strikes if they or Iran-backed militias there intervened, the Saudi state-run al Hadath news outlet reported on Monday.

In the shadow of Turkey’s growing threat to Israel and the West, the Israeli Knesset yesterday held a historic floor debate on confronting this imminent danger. The action followed an urgent motion submitted by MK Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism), co-chair of the Knesset Eastern Mediterranean Cooperation Caucus.

Toplines

Some Syrian General Security Service (GSS) units are improving their counter-insurgency approach in rural minority areas by relying on relationships with locals. The GSS arrested a large Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Assadist cell in Sheikh Bader, Tartous Province, on November 12.[1] Independent Syria researcher Gregory Waters reported on November 21 that locals originally tipped off the GSS to the cell’s presence at their compound in Sheikh Bader.[2] The two GSS officers who led the investigation said that the local tip-off and local community support were critical to the GSS’s dismantlement of the Assadist cell and to stability in the surrounding area.[3]

Washington and its allies are waiting for Beirut to acknowledge the difficult but unavoidable truth: that war will resume unless serious action is taken to target all the pillars of Hezbollah’s power, bolster Shia political alternatives, and otherwise satisfy the ceasefire’s most important requirement: disarming the group.

Hamas official said terror group was transferring hostage’s body, but no official statement made; Qatar says it hopes to push Israel and Hamas to next phase of truce ‘very soon’

Israel received unspecified “findings” potentially belonging to a hostage, handed over by Hamas through the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Tuesday, as Israel awaits the return of the bodies of the final two captives.

Chaos erupted among government agencies in Iraq on Thursday after Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis appeared briefly on a list of terrorist groups facing sanctions, before it was quickly retracted.

A terrorist listing would be a surprise move against Iranian allies with connections in Iraq. The Official Gazette published on the Justice Ministry website, dated November 17, listed the two groups among organisations accused of terrorism and financing extremism.

Although Washington should keep pressing the Lebanese government to seize weapons and prosecute political assassins, the chances of Beirut actually confronting the militia appear increasingly slim.

Just days before the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, the government of Lebanon announced that it would provide official disability cards and full benefits to thousands of Hezbollah members injured in Israel’s now-famous September 2024 covert operation detonating pagers belonging to the Lebanese militia group. The Trump administration criticized Beirut’s decision to extend a social safety net for some Hezbollah members, and the initiative was hurriedly rolled back. But that aborted decision highlights a troubling dynamic in Lebanon more than a year after Israel smashed Hezbollah and decapitated its leadership.