Latest Articles about Middle East
U.S. Missiles Target Suspect in Transatlantic Airliner Plot
Late in the evening of November 21, a U.S. operated Predator drone struck a house in North Waziristan owned by local warlord Khaliq Noor. Among those allegedly killed were British-Pakistani militant Rashid Rauf and senior al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubair al-Masri (Dawn [Karachi], November 22; BBC,... MORE
Iraq’s Shias Split over the Impending U.S.-Iraq Status-of-Forces Agreement
Major divisions have begun to emerge in the Shia political bloc following the Iraqi cabinet’s approval of a proposed security agreement between Baghdad and Washington that would authorize American forces to remain in the country until the end of 2011 (Voices of Iraq, November 18;... MORE
Erdogan Visits India: Bilateral Trade and Turkish-Israeli-Indian Energy Cooperation on the Agenda
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited India from November 21 to 24, against a background of growing economic ties between the two nations. Erdogan was the first Turkish prime minister to visit India since Bulent Ecevit’s visit in 2000. Erdogan met Indian President Pratibha... MORE
Kurdish Islamist Groups in Northern Iraq
A spokesman of the Kurdish arm of al-Qaeda in Iraq recently announced the group’s intention to eliminate Iraq’s Kurdish leadership: “To the two Kurdish puppets, Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani, I swear by God that we have no mercy or sympathy towards the traitors who... MORE
Turkey and Iran Sign Accord on Natural Gas Cooperation
Ankara and Tehran signed an accord strengthening agreements on developing Iran’s gas fields and transporting Iranian gas to Europe. With the agreement, Turkey secures the operation rights for three offshore gas fields in Iran's South Pars region, off the southern gulf port of Assaluyeh. Under... MORE
A Mujahideen Bleed-Through from Iraq? Part Three – The Case of Jordan
Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan has been a nation living in an uneasy relationship with the Sunni Islamist movement. With a population more than fifty-percent Palestinian, Jordan became an ever-more useful place for Palestinian radicals to hang their hats while preparing plans to destroy... MORE
The Neo-Zarqawists: Divisions Emerge between Jordan’s Salafist Militants
On October 27 an open letter signed by a number of prominent Jordanian Salafists and warning of a new zealot takfiri group in Jordan circulated on jihadist web-forums (alhesbahweb.net, October 27; muslm.net, October 27). Following the takfiri practice of condemning fellow Muslims as apostates or... MORE
China’s Policy Toward Iran: Arms for Oil?
Major powers deliberated on September 19 in Washington over a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran to curb its nuclear program, but deliberations ended with no firm commitments amid Chinese and Russian opposition to stronger punitive measures. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told the... MORE
Coalition Attack Brings an End to the Career of al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Second-in-Command
The U.S. military scored one of its biggest tactical successes against al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) on October 5 by killing Abu Qaswarah, a man identified by both the U.S. military and the rebel Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) as the organization’s commander for Northern Iraq.... MORE
Iran’s Kurdish Militants Under Pressure from Joint Turkish-Iranian Assaults
Until recently, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (Parti Jiyani Azadi Kurdistan – PJAK), an armed Kurdish separatist group active in Iran, was beginning to emerge as a genuine military irritant to Iran’s government, killing in excess of 100 Iranian security forces per year... MORE