Russian President Vladimir Putin participated in the seventh summit of the heads of states in the Astana Peace Process for Syria in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2022. This marked Putin’s first trip outside the post-Soviet bloc since Russia’s military attack on Ukraine, and it... MORE

The Ukraine war has generated shockwaves far beyond the Donbas battlefields, and the Middle East has absorbed and returned the variegated impacts and, as a result, has attracted increased attention in recent weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to visit Tehran, Iran, on July... MORE

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with the new leader of neighboring Turkmenistan, President Serdar Berdymukhammedov, for the first time on June 15, at the 6th summit of the Caspian Sea littoral states, in Ashgabat. As a consequence of their talks, the pair agreed to sign... MORE

As the Ukraine war has entered its fifth month, and two decades after Iran, Russia and India signed the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) in 2002, Dariush Jamali, head of the Iranian-Russian Port of Solyanka in Astrakhan Oblast, announced that the first transit shipment from... MORE

On May 7, days after Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi claimed terrorism was on the brink of eradication in Sinai, Islamic State in Sinai Province (ISSP) carried out the largest terrorist attack in Egypt since July 2020 (Masrawy, April 26). ISSP militants killed eleven Egyptian... MORE

After implementing a number of trans-Eurasian energy and logistics mega-projects, such as the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan oil pipeline, Southern Gas Corridor and Trans-Caspian International Transportation Route, Azerbaijan has also strategically committed itself to policies designed to turn the South Caucasus country into a regional digital hub (see... MORE

On May 16–17, with much of the attention in Eurasia still fixated on the Russian-Ukrainian war, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, paid a visit to Tajikistan, where he met with President Emomali Rahmon and senior military officials.... MORE

In 2022, attention has returned to the important jihadist theorist, ideologue, and strategist, Abu Musab al-Suri, due to an article published by Syrian journalist, Hossam Jazmati, in February (SyriaTv, February 28). Citing personal sources, Jazmati reported that al-Suri died in 2011 and that he was... MORE

Uighur Jihadism Fades Into Obscurity Jacob Zenn A decade ago, at the onset of the Syrian civil war, Uighur militants joined the forefront of the jihadist movement. Originally based in Afghanistan, they comprised a sub-group of the Islamic Movement in Uzbekistan (IMU) and allied with... MORE

On March 18, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad landed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a whistle-stop tour involving meetings with numerous high-ranking Emirati government officials (Arab News, March 18). Among others, al-Assad met with UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum before being... MORE