Orientul Mijlociu

Repatriating ISIS Foreign Fighters Is Key to Stemming Radicalization, Experts Say, but Many Countries Don’t Want Their Citizens Back

A review of the 10 countries that yielded the most individuals affiliated with ISIS found varying levels of commitment to repatriation and prosecution.

In the two years since the self-declared Islamic State lost its last physical stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, thousands of ISIS foreign fighters, along with their wives and children, have remained in limbo, mostly in Iraqi custody or in Kurdish detention camps in northeastern Syria.

Israel Reportedly Attacks Iranian Ship in Red Sea

Israel has informed the United States that it is behind Tuesday’s attack on an Iranian reconnaissance ship in the Red Sea, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. According to several reports, Israel’s commando naval forces struck the Iranian vessel, called Saviz, off the shores of Eritrea, responding to last month’s two incidents in which Israeli-owned cargo ships were targeted in the Persian Gulf by Iranian missiles. On Wednesday, Tehran’s foreign ministry issued its first official comment, acknowledging the ship was hit but adding that only minor damage was sustained and that no one onboard was hurt. The latest incident is a noticeable escalation in the ongoing hostile naval exchanges between the two enemy nations. In March, two separate commercial vessels owned by Israeli shipping magnates were hit by Iranian missiles, causing limited damage. Israel, meanwhile, has over the years reportedly sabotaged dozens of Iranian ships it has suspected of illegally carrying arms and oil to Syria and other neighboring countries.

‘Constructive’ Vienna Meetings Spur Hope for Parties to Iran Nuclear Deal

The remaining parties to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear activities in return for global sanction relief, met on Tuesday in Vienna for what both sides called “constructive” talks. British, Chinese, French, German and Russian officials who met with Iran’s representatives hope to bring Tehran back into compliance with the largely aborted deal, while the Islamic Republic has demanded that new sanctions, re-imposed by former President Donald Trump after he quit the pact in 2018, be lifted first. European mediators on Tuesday shuttled between Iran’s negotiators and the United States envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, also present in the Austrian capital, as Tehran has so far refused a direct face-to-face with Washington officials. While both sides tempered expectations in the days leading up to the Vienna summit, State Department spokesman Ned Price noted Tuesday’s indirect back and forth was a “welcome … constructive … potentially useful step.”

Russian Reactions To China-Iran Agreement

On March 27, 2021, China and Iran signed a 25-year cooperation agreement valued at 400 billion USD and integrating Iran into the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.[1] For Russia, the agreement was received on two levels. On one level, Russia, which has been on the receiving end of Western sanctions viewed the agreement as a blow to the sanctions policy and therefore as a positive. On a different level, the Sino-Iranian agreement, coupled with recent activity by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the region that included visits to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE, Bahrain, and Oman raised the question of Chinese competition for Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was queried about this issue in a press conference at the Valdai Discussion Club think tank. Lavrov welcomed “honest competition”.

Ten years after the revolution: Syrian media still struggles for freedom and truth

AMMAN — “Despite the sacrifice of journalists and the large number of those who have given their lives to report the truth, the ceiling of freedom is still very low inside Syria,” Ibrahim Hussein, the director of the Syrian Center for Press Freedoms (SCPF) at the Syrian Journalists Association, told Syria Direct.

Syrian media has witnessed significant transformations through ten years of revolution and war. However, Syrian journalists remain heavily influenced by political actors on all sides, and press freedom has barely improved.

With government complicity, Syrians’ property falls victim to forgery

AMMAN – Marwa’s house, located behind Basateen al-Razi in Damascus, is registered in the name of her husband, “who was killed by a bombing of the area in 2012,” she said. That did not stop her husband’s brother from selling “the house to one of the Hezbollah members who surround the city of Darayya city.” However, “I can’t go to the government institutions in Damascus to make a claim for my family’s right to the property,” the displaced woman now living in northwest Syria’s city of Idlib told Syria Direct.

Houthis Increase Attacks Amid Decreased U.S. Support for Arab Coalition

Attacks on Saudi Arabian critical infrastructure and civilians in the region are increasing in frequency as the United States reduces its support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The Iran-backed Houthis have claimed responsibility for a wave of cross-border attacks, including ballistic missile attacks on an Aramco petroleum distribution center over the weekend. The most recent assaults follow a U.N. investigation that determined the Houthis were responsible for a deadly December 2020 attack on a Yemeni airport, which resulted in the death of at least 22 people. Houthi officials have warned that its strikes would continue. Despite its decreased support for the anti-Houthi coalition, the United States has condemned the Houthi attacks and called for a cessation of violence.

Indoctrinated in Hate: ‘This Is the Start of the New Caliphate’

Hate-filled indoctrination and training in violence is not limited to the “schools” of ISIS or Boko Haram. Public schools all around the Muslim world share elements of this indoctrination. Most recently, a March 2021 study exposed how the school curriculum of Turkey — for decades one of the Muslim world’s most secular nations — is also increasingly full of jihadi propaganda.