![](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/region-middle-east.jpg)
Latest Articles about Middle East
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Umar_Shishani_-_EDM_April_17__2015.jpg)
Allure of Islamic State’s Media Machine Attracts New Generation of Chechen Recruits
Emotions ran high in the Chechen community once again with the news that two school children from Pankisi, Georgia, went to Syria to fight, presumably alongside the Islamic State organization (see EDM, April 16). Earlier in April, 16-year-old Muslim Kushtanashvili and 18-year-old Ramzan Bagakashvili went... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/A_recent_attack_by_Jaysh_al-Adl_on_Iranian_forces_in_Sistan_Balochistan_Source_JashulAdl.jpg)
Iran Confronts Intensifying Insurgent Offensive in Sistan-Balochistan Province
While diplomatic developments between Iran and the United States over Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s actions in countries such as Syria and Yemen have drawn the most attention in recent weeks, a series of attacks in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Balochistan province underline that a range of... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Logo_of_the_Popular_Mobilization_Forces_in_Iraq_Source_Wikimedia_user_Hashima20.jpg)
A Short Profile of Iraq’s Shi’a Militias
The Islamic State’s sudden capture of much of northern Iraq, including the country’s third largest city of Mosul, and the resulting collapse of the Iraqi Army, in June 2014, was a turning point for Shi’a militias in the country. Formerly sidelined, these groups have now... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Tamaz_Ahmed_Chaghalidze_-_EDM_April_16__2015.jpg)
More of Georgia’s Muslims Try to Join Islamic State
On April 2, two high school boys from Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, populated by Muslim Chechens (known as Kists in Georgia), disappeared and later contacted their parents, notifying them that they were in Turkey. It is widely believed that the teenagers are heading for Syria, in... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Islamic_State_fighters_-_EDM_April_16__2015.jpg)
Tide of Support for Islamic State in the North Caucasus Causes Alarm in Moscow
Russia watchers can hardly fail to notice that Moscow often reacts to events in the North Caucasus after a significant time lag. Several amirs of the Caucasus Emirate pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State back in November–December 2014. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), however,... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/S-300_-_EDM_April_16__2015.jpg)
Moscow Is Ready to Supply Iran With Powerful S-300 Missiles
This week (April 13), President Vladimir Putin signed an ukaz (presidential decree) to allow the export of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. Putin’s decision overruled a previous ukaz signed by then-president Dmitry Medvedev, on September 22, 2010, which incorporated into Russian law United Nations Security... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/yemen.jpg)
Russia and Yemen’s Agony
Russia’s position on the fighting in Yemen needs to be understood in terms of its overall approach to the Middle East. And Moscow’s approach to the region has become more confident and strident, as Washington’s has become ever more confused and disjointed. Vitaly Naumkin, a... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/iranrussia.jpg)
Iranian Deal Leaves Russia in Deeper Isolation
Moscow tried its best to present the hard-negotiated deal in Lausanne, Switzerland, on curtailing and controlling the Iranian nuclear program as a success of its firm diplomatic position for a political solution to this formidable problem. In fact, however, Russia played, at best, a secondary... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Al_Hasakah_based_Arabs_declaring_allegiance_to_the_Islamic_State_in_the_light_of_Arab_Kurdish_tensions_Source_screengrab.jpg)
The Struggle for Syria’s al-Hasakah Governorate: Kurds, the Islamic State and the IRGC
The Islamic State’s attack on ethnic Assyrian Christian communities in the northeastern Syrian governorate of al-Hasakah in February and the subsequent kidnapping of approximately 220 Assyrian villagers has brought renewed international attention to the region and the complex ethnic and religious conflicts brewing there (Daily... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Salautdin_Shishani_-_EDM_April_2__2015.jpg)
Chechen Militants Fighting in Middle East Remain Split in Their Loyalties
Many Chechen supporters of the Islamic State have flocked to the Middle East. And as their numbers and fervency have grown, this has placed at a disadvantage other Chechen commanders in the Middle East who have refused to subordinate themselves to the self-styled new caliphate.... MORE