Orientul Mijlociu

Introduction

Over the past four years, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has tried to transform itself from a faction of the Global Jihad movement into the de facto local military and governing power in north-west (NW) Syria. This shift requires the group to seek sources of funding other than al-Qaeda and its donors; consequently, HTS has undertaken a slow but steady takeover of the economy in NW Syria, from financial services and oil and gas to internet and telecommunications. This paper lays out how that process has taken place and provides a detailed look at the economics of HTS.

The factory producing centrifuges for Iran’s nuclear project, which was reportedly targeted by a mysterious drone attack on Wednesday, was among a handful of facilities presented by Israeli intelligence to the previous White House administration as potential targets for sabotage attacks, The New York Times revealed Thursday.

It was common knowledge that a U.S. failure to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal (known as the JCPOA) before Iran’s June presidential election would help conservative hard-liners to win the election. Indeed, on Saturday, June 19, the conservative Ebrahim Raisi was elected as the new President of Iran.

As the international community seeks ways to help the residents of the Gaza Strip after the recent war between Israel and Hamas… and PIJ are diverting their budgets to training children to become soldiers in the war to destroy Israel.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirms that… the Palestinians “are preparing the liberation generation for the ‘great liberation’ battle for this blessed land.”

Four Saudi agents who took part in the gruesome 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in an Istanbul consulate received military training on American soil the previous year, by a private security company and under a contract approved by the United States State Department, The New York Times revealed Tuesday.

Iran last week performed yet another failed attempt to launch a satellite into outer space, reported to be the fourth consecutive misfire by Tehran in its efforts to place an unmanned spacecraft into orbit.

According to Pentagon officials who spoke with CNN, the unsuccessful try was held on June 12 at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport facility in northern Iran, 150 miles east of the capital. Private sector satellite imagery, however, has shown that the Islamic republic is gearing up for another shot soon.

The German Parliament and other federal agencies estimate that the true number Grey Wolves in Germany is above 18,000. This is five times more than the number of members (3,500) of Germany’s neo-Nazi party.

The ideology underpinning the Grey Wolves movement is a Turkish version of Aryanism and sets itself in opposition to anyone who is not Turkish or Sunni Islamic. It is anti-Christian and anti-Jewish, as well as anti-American, anti-Armenian, anti-Kurdish and anti-Greek.

Iran’s new hard-line President-elect, Ebrahim Raisi, said Monday he would not negotiate over limiting Tehran’s ballistic missile program or its support for regional militia proxy forces.

In addition, Raisi told reporters in Tehran that he would not meet with U.S. President Joe Biden as the United States attempts to rejoin the 2015 international pact to restrain Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

The recent Hamas-Israel conflict brought into focus the years-long close relationship between Hamas and Iran. During the operation, Hamas leaders were in constant contact with Iranian offsssicials, and each side fulsomely praised the other. Both stressed Iran’s contribution to the development of Hamas’ military capabilities.

On Sunday, the U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan downplayed the impact of Iran’s President-Elect Ebrahim Raisi on Tehran’s decision over the nuclear deal.

“Whether the president is person A or person B is less relevant than whether their entire system is prepared to make verifiable commitments to constrain their nuclear program,” Sullivan said in an interview with ABC News when asked about the implication of Raisi’s election.