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Since the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s government just over a year ago, Syria has become an arena for an increasingly stark contest between Turkey and Israel.

Ankara and Tel Aviv’s strategic visions for Syria are fundamentally irreconcilable. Turkey seeks a unified state anchored by an Ankara-friendly central authority and preserved territorial integrity.

Israel, by contrast, favours a weakened and fragmented Syria incapable of projecting power or resisting external aggression.

It is not the story of a farm or the story of a settler who loves agriculture in “Judea and Samaria”, but a focus that is cultivated in the heart of the West Bank to transform a weapon, a road and a dominance, under the cover of “holiness.” Thus began a leaflet of a settler named Yeddia Plutkin calling for a donation to what he called a “holy farm”, in soft language that concealed a more ruthless project.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich lauds approvals as part of a ‘clear strategic move to strengthen settlement’

Israel has approved the construction of 764 houses in three Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday.

Syria’s President Ahmad Al Shara on Friday issued a decree affirming the rights of Kurdish ⁠Syrians, formally recognising their language ​and restoring citizenship to the country’s largest minority community.

“I have the honour to issue a decree especially for our Kurdish people, which guarantees their rights and some of their privileges in accordance with the law,” he said in a speech, in which he also referred to the Kurds as “the grandchildren of Salahuddin”.

Tehran Chief Prosecutor Ali Salehi responded to a January 16, 2026 statement by U.S. President Donald Trump on Truth Social, in which Trump acknowledged Iran’s leadership for canceling 800 executions of anti-regime protesters. Salehi told IRINN TV (Iran) on January 17, 2026 that Trump “always talks nonsense.” He added that Iran’s treatment of the rioters has been “decisive, deterrent, and direct,” with many cases culminating in indictments and being referred to the courts.

The CEO of the Syrian Petroleum Company, Youssef Qablawi, said oil production at al-Omar field in Deir Ezzor Governorate fell from around 50,000 barrels per day in previous years to less than 5,000 barrels per day currently, due to damage to the wells and the lack of rehabilitation in past periods.

As the rivalry between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi sharpens in Yemen and beyond, Turkey has begun edging closer to Saudi Arabia. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has openly acknowledged Saudi concerns, saying in a televised interview, on January 8, that “developments in the region — especially recent ones — pose a threat to Saudi Arabia.” Shortly afterward, reports emerged that Ankara was seeking to join the Saudi-Pakistani defense pact signed last September, which frames an attack on either country as “an aggression against both.” That “one for all, all for one” language — echoing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Article 5 mutual defense clause — has fueled claims in Washington and the Middle East that a new regional order is taking shape: a Turkey-Saudi axis backed by a NATO-like defense architecture, implicitly aligned against Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Protesters who took to the streets in Iran say the media is wrongly portraying monarchists as leading the uprising.

A week after Iranian security forces violently crushed the latest anti-regime protests, the streets are quiet for now, but a battle over who speaks for the uprising has erupted.

As deadly riots burn Iranian cities, Western media ignores the shocking wave of violence, turning instead to US government-funded NGOs for data. The one-sided portrayal has helped push Trump to the brink of authorizing renewed US attacks.

Western media has ignored a growing trove of video evidence showing terrorist tactics deployed across Iran by protesters described by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as “largely peaceful.” Recent videos published both by Iranian state media and anti-government forces reveal public lynchings of unarmed guards, the torching of mosques, arson attacks on municipal buildings, marketplaces and fire stations, and mobs of armed gunmen opening fire in the heart of Iranian cities.