Turkish military actions against US-allied Syrian Kurdish forces could threaten to upend plans for unseating the Islamic State (IS) in Raqqa, Syria, and for what comes next. “Though pointing to Idlib as the next destination,” Fehim Tastekin reports, “Turkey’s field operations signal double objectives. First, Turkey wants its own troops in the de-conflicting, or ‘safe,’ zones determined during peace…
Iranian authorities have rounded up at least 150 people in Tehran and in the Kurdish areas in the west of the country following the June 7 terrorist attacks in the capital, which claimed 18 lives. The five young attackers who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) in a video released shortly after the attacks…
The ten days preceding President Putin and Trump’s historic meeting at the G20 Summit in Hamburg on 7 July stand to be the most important thus far in determining the contours of Syria’s so-called “political solution”. Both leaders see their upcoming meeting as the best chance to conclusively sort out their countries’ strategic differences in Syria…
Iran and Turkey, the two non-Arab Middle Eastern states, are among the largest and most populous in the region. The former occupies a strategic location on the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, while the latter controls the Bosporus Strait, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, which links the Black and Aegean Seas….
The unforgettable Middle East still does not allow anyone to forget about it – neither diplomats, nor politicians, nor political scientists. The entire world is closely watching the development of rather dangerous events in the Arabian (Persian) Gulf region. Pessimists predict either a third World War or at least armed hostilities among a number of…
The split inside the Trump administration over how to deal with the Qatar crisis has opened a dangerous situation that could soon lead to armed conflict. The State and Defense Departments have largely sided with Qatar, but the White House has undermined the leverage the U.S. has over Saudi Arabia to rein in Riyadh’s aggressive…
