
Latest Articles about Middle East

Strategic Consequences of Russia’s Economic Presence in the Suez Canal Zone
Belarus recently announced plans to join the Russian Industrial Zone (RIZ) in the Suez Canal. Eventually, Minsk intends to set up its own industrial park in the Egyptian Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone); but for now, Belarus is content to cooperate with Moscow in the... MORE

Iran May Not Be the Entirely Reliable Ally in the Caspian Moscow Hopes For
Following last month’s (August 12) Caspian Economic Forum in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (see EDM, September 4), a number of Russian commentators celebrated what they saw as a victory of the “Russian-Iranian approach,” which seeks to promote north-south trade over the east-west flows supported by the three... MORE

Crimea Offers Iran Use of Its Ports for Oil Transport
Both Iran and Russia suffer from the United States’ sanctions: the former since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the latter since its 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea. But in a recent bout of creative synergy, Crimean “deputy prime minister” and the permanent representative of Crimea to... MORE

Briefs
Iraq: External Actions Against PMF Threaten Delicate Balance Brian M. Perkins Iraq remains in an extremely precarious position after declaring victory over Islamic State (IS) in December 2017, and regional tensions continue to upset the local balance of power. Iraq relies heavily on the Popular... MORE

Islamic State Operations Room: Lebanon Prison Radicalization
On the evening of June 3, a gunman killed two police officers and two members of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in Tripoli, Lebanon. The assailant, identified posthumously as Lebanese national Abdel Rahman Mabsout, opened fire and threw explosives at two security positions while riding... MORE

Some Old, Some New: Grievances, Players, and Backers in the Conflict in Southern Yemen
The war in Yemen has grown increasingly intractable over the past several months as the long-simmering rift within the anti-Houthi coalition has widened, with violence between the pro-secession Southern Transitional Council (STC) and Hadi and Islah-aligned forces erupting in Aden, Shabwa, and Abyan. The conflict... MORE

Russia and Turkey Reach Shaky Agreement on Syrian Idlib Province
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was the guest of honor on the opening day of the MAKS 2019 aerospace show, in Zhukovsky, on the outskirts of Moscow (see EDM, September 3). On August 27, a massive security cordon kept both military and civilian visitors at... MORE

An In-Depth Look at Hani Bin Burayk: The UAE’s New Master of Aden
In August, Hani Bin Burayk, the Salafist cleric and militia commander from southern Yemen, called for the full mobilization of his troops in order to take control of the city of Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government of Yemen since the Houthis pushed... MORE

Umm Umara—Al-Qaeda and Islamic State’s Mysterious Poetess and Jihadist Parenting Advisor
Background The editor and occasional contributor to the al-Qaeda affiliated magazine The Daughter of Islam, Umm Umara al-Muhajirah, is carving out a new, female role within the terrorist movement through literature and art, since the launch of her magazine in September 2017. Umm Umara was... MORE

Hopes Reemerge for Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, but Critical Obstacles Persist
On August 12, delegations led by the prime ministers of the five Caspian littoral states—Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan—came together at Turkmenistan’s coastal resort of Awaza to hold the first annual Caspian Economic Forum. The heads of government from two other countries, Uzbekistan and... MORE