Latest Articles about Middle East
June 2010 Briefs
IRAN HANGS ANOTHER RIGI, FUTURE OF JUNDULLAH UNCERTAIN On June 20, 2010, just weeks after his brother Abdolhamid Rigi was hanged by the Iranian state (see Militant Leadership Monitor, May 2010), Jundullah chief Abdolmalek Rigi was marched to the gallows of the infamous Evin prison... MORE
Algeria’s AQIM Becomes a Regional Threat Despite Surrender of Senior Leaders
The Algerian-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) organization is facing new challenges to its leadership and its mission as a result of Algerian counterterrorist measures. The loss of a number of AQIM’s commanders to defections or arrest during security sweeps is beginning to have... MORE
AQAP’s New Strategy: Targeting Westerners and Promoting the Individual Jihad
A recent article appearing on jihadi websites insists that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) members will "carry out Osama bin Laden’s orders” to capture and execute U.S. nationals if jihadist captives in the United States receive death sentences. Sada al-Malahim, the magazine of al-Qaeda... MORE
Iran’s Nuclear Crisis Causes Unease in Armenia
Armenia is watching, with unease, the latest developments in neighboring Iran’s standoff with the international community over its controversial nuclear program. The new, harsher sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council on Tehran last week raise fresh questions over the growing Armenian-Iranian economic ties which... MORE
Iran Integrates the Concept of the “Soft War” Into its Strategic Planning
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said this week that “certain countries” are waging a “Soft War” against Iran that should be countered through the establishment of closer relationships with other nations (Tehran Times, June 8). The concept of a “Soft War” is quickly becoming an... MORE
Economic and Defense Ties Between Turkey and Israel in Crisis
In the wake of the flotilla crisis between Israel and Turkey, attention is shifting to the question of what this development might mean for their bilateral relationship. Angered by the Israeli army’s treatment of Turkish citizens seeking to break Israel’s blockage of Gaza, which resulted... MORE
Egypt and Gaza’s Islamic Jihad: A Steady Deterioration in Relations
Egypt's relations with the Palestinian factions have become remarkably cold recently, with Egyptian efforts to end the Palestinian divide hitting a dead end. Cairo no longer has direct contacts with Hamas and contacts with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement have retreated recently. According to several... MORE
Turkey Prioritizes Independent Regional Policies in the Middle East and the South Caucasus
Turkey continued its regional diplomacy, following the historic visit by Russian President Medvedev to Ankara (EDM, May 20). Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan paid back-to-back trips to Greece, Iran and Azerbaijan, which underscored Turkey’s rising activism in its neighborhood, as well as highlighting divergence with the... MORE
The Hizbullah Trial in Egypt: A War of Words in the New Middle East Cold War
The latest exchange of blows in the ongoing feud between Egypt and Lebanon’s Hizbullah came on April 28, as the Egyptian State Security Court convicted and sentenced 26 individuals who Cairo accuses of being part of an active Hizbullah cell in Egypt. Authorities claim the... MORE
Georgia Develops Functional Relations With Iran
On May 20-24, a delegation of Tehran journalists, led by the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast (with deputy minister’s rank), visited Georgia. The group included journalists from Iranian radio and television channels, news agencies, and print media, both state-owned and private. Mehmanparast and... MORE