Orientul Mijlociu

“Look at our times a handful of imposter clerics
Having no notion of reason and science
Having no notion of what man is about
Desperate like donkeys in search of fodder
All they care about is eating and fornicating
Have cast aside notions of shame and honor
They seek nothing but loot and plunder
Alien they are to rules of faith.”

— Sanai, 11th century Persian poet, from a samizdat distributed in the “holy” city of Qom, the bastion of Iranian clergy, February 20, 2026, the 40th day of the deaths of thousands of protesters across Iran.

A bruising, nearly three-hour exchange between conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has ignited political backlash across the Middle East and exposed deep fractures within the American right over Israel, religion, and US foreign policy. Filmed at Ben-Gurion Airport, the wide-ranging interview mixed theology, Gaza war ethics, espionage controversies, and sensational allegations—some of which Carlson later retracted.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched an ambitious diplomatic offensive aimed at unifying the Sunni world under Ankara’s leadership. The objective is not merely reconciliation with former rivals. It is the construction of a Sunni diplomatic and strategic “wall,” or “noose,” around Israel, replacing the Iranian “Shi’ite crescent” with a new configuration of Sunni power.

The leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, said in a speech on the occasion of World Mother Language Day that “the Republican Decree on the recognition of the Kurdish language as a national language in Syria is an achievement and a big and positive step, but it is not enough.”

On Saturday, February 22, the Islamic State claimed the death of three members of the Syrian Defense Ministry in northeastern Syria, two days after it claimed responsibility for another attack in Deir ez-Zor province.

A month after the bloody debacle of the 1972 Munich Olympics, the CIA was still struggling to comprehend what had unfolded. Palestinian gunmen had slipped into the Olympic Village at dawn, taken 11 Israeli athletes’ hostage, and, after a botched and amateurish rescue attempt by German police, murdered them. In Langley, analysts responded as bureaucracies do: they compiled a background report on the Palestinian organizations suspected of involvement. It was orderly, methodical—and curiously hollow.

Les opérations de renseignement israéliennes en Iran ont alarmé Pékin, qui les a perçues comme un nouveau modèle de guerre du renseignement, ce qui a incité à une coopération technologique, sécuritaire et stratégique plus étroite avec Téhéran.

The Syrian Ministry of Interior has outlined the procedures for submitting applications to obtain Syrian citizenship for Kurdish residents covered under Decree No. 13 of 2026, issued on January 16.

According to a decision published by the ministry on Friday, February 20, applications may be submitted individually or on a family basis. The head of household may apply on behalf of himself, his wife, and his minor children at designated centers set by the ministry.

For 10 years now Hamas has used Turkey as a base to operate against Israel.

• A decade has passed since the official opening of Hamas’ offices in Istanbul, and Turkey is courting Israel anew.
• Turkey collaborates with terror organizations on both the ideological and operational levels.
• Terrorists working on Turkish soil establish infrastructures and plan terror attacks against Israel.
• Hamas senior officials (most former inmates in Israel for terrorism who were released in a prisoner exchange) are operating from Turkey against Israel. Some have even been granted Turkish citizenship.
• In December 2021, Israeli security forces broke up Hamas-linked terror cells in Nablus (Shechem) and Hebron in the West Bank. On December 12, 2021, Israel’s Minister of Interior Ayelet Shaked signed an order banning the departure from the country of several known “senior Hamas activists” who, it was suspected, would link up with Hamas officials overseas.
• Turkey today seeks another reconciliation with Israel. Israel should demand “payment in advance,” meaning that the Turks must first act against the Hamas operatives on their soil and prove that they are preventing them from continuing to act against Israel.
• Only then will it be worth upgrading relations with Turkey to a level of understanding and cooperation – a goal that both sides certainly have an interest in promoting.