La Turquie, c’est le califat aux portes de l’Europe

Pour le grand spécialiste du monde musulman Gilles Kepel, trois événements survenus en 2020 bouleversent le Moyen-Orient : le retrait des forces américaines, la pandémie et la chute du cours du pétrole. Le résultat en est une alliance surprenante entre sunnites et chiites qui, dirigée par Recep Erdogan, devient une menace pour l’Europe.

Arab World Needs To Ensure Israel Respects Palestinian Rights

The Arab world is nothing if it is not Palestine, which is at the heart of Arab culture and the world’s most widely followed religions. So why is Palestine struggling, even on simple matters that involve obvious violations of the international rule of law? I understand the politics of the Israel-Palestine conflict: It is debatable and often distorted and exaggerated. But the international rule of law is very clear and is nondebatable.

Libyan prime minister visits Ankara

The visit of the prime minister of Libya’s Government of National Unity highlights an ongoing, close relationship with Turkey, with implications for the Libyan political process, and a likely signal to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

The prime minister of Libya’s Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, led a large delegation during Dbeibeh’s visit to Turkey on April 12. The visiting officials took part in the first meeting of the recently formed High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council between the two countries.

CENTCOM chief warns children risk radicalization at Syrian al-Hol camp

Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie said radicalization would remain a problem unless countries repatriate and reintegrate the children of suspected Islamic State fighters.

The head of US forces in the Middle East warned that displacement camps run by US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria will breed a new generation of Islamic State (IS) fighters if foreign governments don’t repatriate their stranded nationals.

US Navy fires warning shots in encounter with Iranian patrol boats

A US Navy patrol ship fired warning shots to ward off Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf on Monday, marking the second run-in between the two countries’ naval forces this month.

A US Navy patrol ship fired warning shots to ward off Iranian fast-attack boats in the Persian Gulf on Monday, marking the second run-in between the two countries’ naval forces this month.

Intel: US, Israel to cooperate against Iran’s missiles and drones

Biden White House avoids row with Israel over nuclear negotiations with Iran, offers to help counter Tehran’s ballistic and cruise missiles.

The Biden administration and Israeli officials agreed this week to set up an interagency working group to coordinate on ways to counter Iranian drones and precision-guided missiles that have proliferated across the Middle East in recent years.

Turkish forces in fresh offensive against PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan

The latest Turkish military operation against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan comes at a time when Ankara finds itself increasingly under strain, both on the domestic front and in its frosty ties with Washington.

The Turkish military has launched a critically timed ground and air offensive against Kurdish militants in a mountain range in neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan, the latest in a series of cross-border campaigns since 2019 that have resulted in dozens of Turkish bases in the region.

Ending Yemen’s Multilayered War

For U.S. officials who worked under former President Barack Obama, many of whom are now beginning or contemplating jobs in Joe Biden’s administration, the war in Yemen casts a long shadow. What started on their watch as a primarily internal power struggle has since metastasized into a messy and multilayered conflict. It is the world’s most dire humanitarian crisis, involving alleged violations of international law—many of them perpetrated with American-made arms—and has become a potential trigger for a region-wide conflagration. For much of Biden’s foreign policy team, then, Yemen represents both unfinished business and, potentially, a small but significant piece of a wider course correction in U.S. policy toward the Middle East.

As Right-Wing Extremism Rises, Jihadism Still Persists

Six separate terrorist attacks took place in Europe between late September and late November of last year—three in France, and one each in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. All six attacks were inspired by Salafi-jihadist ideology, which is, and will remain, a persistent terrorism threat to Europe and elsewhere in the West for the foreseeable future.

Al-Qaida Is Diminished, but Don’t Write Its Obituary Just Yet

Rumors began swirling last fall that al-Qaida chieftain Ayman al-Zawahiri had died of natural causes. With no confirmation, counterterrorism analysts and long-time al-Qaida watchers weighed in with various assessments of what it would mean for the terrorist organization if it had indeed lost its leader. Just last week, al-Qaida’s official media arm, al-Sahab, released a video perhaps intended to quell reports of Zawahiri’s demise, with audio clips of Zawahiri addressing the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. But because those messages failed to reference any specifically current events—his vague comments about Rohingya Muslims could apply to events in Myanmar over the past several years—it fueled further speculation that the septuagenarian terrorist leader was in fact dead