Orientul Mijlociu

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.

With the death of Al Qaeda kingpin Ayman Al Zawahiri, the global jihadist outfit is on the process of announcing its next leader. The man likely to become Al Qaeda’s next top dog is Saif Al-Adel, a ruthless jihadist who has spent decades using Iran as a base of operations and who maintains deep ties to the hardline mullah regime, including Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, signaling that two of the world’s leading terrorist forces could exponentially expand relations in the near future. Iran is going to emerge as the “new headquarters” of Al Qaeda, under the leadership of Saif Al-Adel.

Recently the Belgian government proposed and ratified legislation that appears to pave the way to transfer terrorists who have been convicted abroad back to Iran.

Does Belgium not understand that returning convicted terrorists to Iran will further embolden and empower the mullahs to carry out more terrorist acts on the European soil while they maintain complete impunity? The new concession will also encourage Iran’s regime to take even more European citizens as hostages and demand still more concessions from the EU.