Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK—Yeketî Nistîmanî Kurdistan), was admitted to a hospital in Baghdad on December 17, 2012 after he reportedly suffered a stroke. The PUK is one of the ruling parties of the autonomous Kurdistan region... MORE

On February 22, authorities in Adygea stated that the republic was prepared to receive more Circassian refugees from Syria. Republican official Fatima Paranuk stated that the authorities had compiled a list of vacant houses and land strips that can be handed over to the incoming... MORE

The February 26–27 round of the nuclear negotiations involving Iran and the P5+1 group (all five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany) in Almaty went as well as might have reasonably been expected. Nobody expected a breakthrough and none occurred. Yet, the sides met... MORE

While Ismail Haniyah is the prime minister of Hamas, many have speculated that the chief of the organization’s political bureau, Khalid Meshaal, has been the true leader of the group. Meshaal is a charismatic statesman who has maintained top leadership positions while in exile. Meshaal... MORE

Hussam Abdullah Sabbagh (a.k.a. “Abu Hassan”) is an important anti-Assad Lebanese Salafist commander in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. A popular commander of Salafist fighters in Tripoli’s northern, impoverished and restive Sunni neighborhoods, Sabbagh is reported to have been named the amir of the majority... MORE

After Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007, jihadist groups began to emerge in the small Palestinian-controlled strip along the Mediterranean. The emergence of these groups was neither in the favor of Hamas nor the main regional actors, Israel and Egypt. Jihadist groups were responsible... MORE

A stark warning to the West that Tehran would retaliate if Syria was attacked came on January 26 from Ali Akbar Velayati, a close advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to Velayati, Syria is the “resistance front” and any attack on Iran’s... MORE

Iran has accepted Kazakhstan’s offer to host the next round of its nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 group (all five permanent United Nations Security Council members and Germany) (Trend, February 4). Citing a desire to reduce regional tensions and avert an escalation of the nuclear... MORE

Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez, three female members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Parti Karkerani Kurdistan – PKK) were murdered in Paris on the night of January 9 (The Kurdistan Tribune, January 10). The three victims held varying levels of seniority. Sakine Cansiz... MORE

In a scene reminiscent of a Hollywood action movie, Syrian Major General Abdulaziz al-Shalal snuck across the Syrian border into neighboring Turkey on the night of December 21, 2012, trekking across the dangerous Cilvegozu border and the town of Reyhanli in Turkey’s southern Hatay province... MORE