Moscow’s intervention in Syria’s civil war has propelled Russia into the center of Middle Eastern politics and substantially enhanced its ties with virtually every Middle Eastern state. Israel is no exception. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently concluded his fourth visit to Moscow in a... MORE

After months of negotiation, the United States finally gave the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - which is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and includes the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) – the green light to launch its offensive to take the Syrian... MORE

Since the outbreak of Syrian Civil War in 2011, a plethora of violent Islamist groups have surfaced in various parts of the country, some fighting for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, and many fighting against it. According to an estimate from the Soufan Group,... MORE

Omani youth, according to one recent poll, see the ideology of Islamic State (IS) as the largest obstacle facing their Gulf nation (Times of Oman, April 16). The survey, conducted by international polling firm Penn Schoen Berland, found that young Omanis – and indeed many... MORE

Afghanistan: Taliban Moves Quickly to Name New Leader Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was killed in a US drone strike early on May 21, a move that might have initiated the Taliban’s second leadership crisis in less than a year, but the group quickly appointed... MORE

In 1990, Circassian activists designated May 21 as the Day of Mourning and Remembrance to commemorate the final destruction of their nation in 1864 by the Russian Empire. Since then, Circassians in the North Caucasus and outside Russia have marked the Day of Mourning with... MORE

Muslim al-Shishani is the nom de guerre of Murad Margoshvili, commander of the Junud al-Sham (“Soldiers of Syria”) insurgent group operating in Syria. Margoshivili is a Georgian national, but he is also an ethnic Kist, a member of the Chechen sub-ethnic group that lives in... MORE

In recent months, the Federal Security Service (FSB) allegedly thwarted several terrorist attacks on Russian soil by migrants from Central Asia. In April, Russian security services claimed that four citizens of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were planning terrorist acts in Moscow (Kommersant, May 6), while in... MORE

U.S. government charges levied against seven Iranian hackers in March over cyber-attacks against 46 financial institutions and the infiltration of the computer control system of a New York dam has renewed concerns about Iran’s engagement in cyber-terrorism against the United States (Al Jazeera, March 25).... MORE