Let me start with a statement that should be as alarming as it should be uncontentious: The region-wide conflict that now looms largest across the globe is a conflict nobody apparently wants – a conflict triggered by tensions in the Gulf region.
As part of Turkey’s ruling party hosts Hamas terrorists, it has also begun to try to normalize Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an extremist terror group that is widely seen as an Iranian proxy. Israel has put pressure on PIJ in recent years, killing Bahaa Abu el-Atta in November 2019. According to Russian media, Islamic Jihad deputy leader Akram al-Ajouri’s home was also hit with an airstrike last year in Damascus.
A normalization announcement between Israel and Saudi Arabia is close and there could be major developments following the US presidential elections depending on who wins, Mossad director Yossi Cohen has said in closed conversations, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
France on Saturday said it was recalling its ambassador to Turkey for consultations after comments by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggesting his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, needed a mental health check-up, which Paris condemned as unacceptable.
Turkey’s tests of its Russian-made S-400 air defense systems violate Ankara’s commitment to NATO and may hamper its security relations with the US, the Pentagon has said, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the drills.
Thousands of Syrian women and children set to be freed from al-Hol camp require support to ensure sustainable reconciliation.
More than a year since the territorial defeat of ISIS, the region is still reeling in the wake of the self-styled caliphate’s destruction. Kurdish authorities operate two dozen detention facilities in northeast Syria holding thousands of former ISIS fighters.
French President Emmanuel Macron has clearly decided to up the ante in a standoff with Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean, where France is backing Greece and Cyprus in their dispute with Ankara over natural gas reserves and maritime boundaries.
The statement urged US citizens to avoid crowds and keep a low profile in areas frequented by foreigners.
In a security alert issued Friday, the US Embassy in Turkey warned of a terror threat toward Americans in Istanbul and across the country.
The Russian and Turkish sides are holding talks in the Russian capital, Moscow, to discuss the latest developments on the Syrian front.
Russian News agency TASS reported that the Turkish Deputy-Foreign Minister, Sedat Önal, arrived in Moscow on Thursday, at the head of a political delegation, to hold meetings with Russian officials on Syria and Libya.
The 2017 blockade of Qatar came out of nowhere on a summer day in June, when Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates decided to cut ties with the tiny oil-rich Gulf state. It isn’t until three years later that a definitive account of the incident, which realigned the Middle East, is provided in the form of Qatar and the Gulf Crisis, by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.