Orientul Mijlociu

The agreement increased the regime’s oil intake, mainly used for its military forces, Baladi News.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian regime have signed a new agreement to increase oil convoys from areas east of the Euphrates controlled by the SDF to regime-controlled areas.

According to the local al-Khabour website, the planned increase will be at the rate of 160 tanks per week, reaching up to 200 tanks in the future, which will be transported by the Katerji Company.

The Revolutionary Commandos receive ongoing military training from U.S. forces, according to Baladi News.

On Thursday (July 28th), the Revolutionary Commandos (Maghaweer el Thawra) conducted joint military exercises with U.S. forces at the Tanf base in southern Syria.

Four Autonomous Administration’s Internal Security Forces members were killed by a Turkish drone targeting their car in the Ain Issa area, according to al-Modon.

On Thursday, the Kurdish Autonomous Administration’s local authorities stated that they had found a mass grave containing dozens of bodies in northern Syria. The statement suggested that ISIS may have killed the victims during the group’s control of the area.

On Tuesday, the Men of Dignity movement took control of a military security militia headquarters in Sweida governorate.

The Suwayda 24 said that the Men of Dignity movement took control of the Raji Falhout military security headquarters in Sweida and burned it. It was a center for kidnapping, murder, and torture used by the Falhout group.

Advances in Iran’s nuclear program have heightened concerns that it could develop a nuclear bomb in a matter of weeks.

Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat and has signaled it would take aggressive military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program if it passes the nuclear threshold.

Comments by Turkey’s foreign minister hinting at normalization with Damascus drove hundreds of Syrians across Turkish-occupied areas of northern Syria to stage demonstrations.

The chorus of Turkish officialdom calling for engagement with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is growing louder by the day. The moves are calculated to draw votes ahead of elections and weaken Kurdish aspirations for autonomy. They are backed by Russia as it seeks to drive wedges between Turkey and its Western foes.

It has been ten months since Iraqis went to the polls, for the fifth general election in the post-Saddam era, and the new parliament has yet to form a government. Drawn-out periods of government formation are nothing new in post-2003 Iraq, but this time around the implications may be more serious than usual. Tensions among the Shiite parties, which together hold the most total parliamentary seats, run so deep, and the rest of the political field is so fragmented, that politicians may be unable to agree on a compromise solution. With populist protesters occupying parliament since late July, observers are even concerned that Iraq may slide back into civil strife. This time, it would be intra-sectarian, unlike the bloody sectarian war that ravaged the country from 2005 to 2008. There are several factors, however, that militate against such an outcome, including that outside powers could re-engage to help Iraqi leaders find a way out of the impasse.