Arab World

Karbala (AFP) – Iranian firms should have a key role in rebuilding Iraq after the fight against the Islamic State group, Tehran’s top diplomat said Wednesday in a rare meeting with Iraqi paramilitary units. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke in Iraq’s holy city of Karbala to commanders of the Hashed al-Shaabi, which is dominated […]

Kurds

Turkey will set up and itself Manage Syria ‘Security Zone’ after Trump Call

Fulya Ozerkan

By Fulya OZERKAN | – Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey welcomed the planned withdrawal of some 2,000 US troops from Syria but the future of US-backed Kurdish militia forces there labelled terrorists by Ankara has poisoned US-Turkish ties Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Ankara would set up a “security zone” in northern Syria […]

al-Qaeda

Is an al-Qaeda Front dominating 3 Million People in North Syria?

AFP

By Michel MOUTOT | – Paris (AFP) – The jihadist group now controlling Idlib province in northwest Syria claims to have broken with Al-Qaeda, but analysts say that despite several rebrandings there’s no sign it has changed its stripes. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) sealed its hold on Idlib last week after signing a ceasefire with […]

Iran

Iraq welcomes Iran Foreign Minister after Pompeo, denounces US Sanctions as “Illegal”

AFP

Baghdad, Iraq | AFP | – Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali al-Hakim (R) receives his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Baghdad on January 13, 2019 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad on Sunday for wide-ranging talks, including on US sanctions against Tehran. The visit came just days […]

Qatar

Ostracized by Neighbors, Qatar aims to Invest $45 bn in United States

Middle East Monitor

Qatar Investment Authority aims to raise investments in the United States to $45 billion in the next two years as it rebalances its portfolio of assets away from Europe, its chief executive said on Sunday according to a Reuters report. The sovereign wealth fund has built up a huge European portfolio through stakes in companies […]

Corporate Surveillance

Snowden: If Israel’s NSO had Refused Sale to Saudis, Khashoggi would be Alive

Middle East Monitor

US whistle-blower Edward Snowden has said that if Israeli spyware firm NSO Group had refused to sell its technology to Saudi Arabia, murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi would still be alive. In an exclusive interview with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published yesterday, Snowden stressed: “There is a real possibility that if NSO had refused to […]

Syria

Defying Turkey & Russia in Syria, al-Qaeda-linked HTS takes over Idlib

AFP

By Jean Marc Mojon | – Beirut (AFP) – A general view of a camp for displaced people in the village of Atme, in Syria’s mostly rebel-held northern Idlib province on January 8, 2019 The Idlib area in northern Syria is now fully ruled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist organisation dominated by members […]

Donald Trump

Pompeo’s US Jingoism and Anti-Iran Warmongering Rejected by Mideast Public

Juan Cole

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a major and extremely embarrassing foreign policy speech in Cairo on Thursday, which is probably inconsequential since his major talking points departed from the positions of his president, Trump. Also, aside from some generals and kings and princes, nobody in the region agrees with anything he said. Pompeo’s message […]

Donald Trump

Turkey’s Erdogan snubs Bolton for support of Kurdish YPG: ‘He made a grave Mistake’

AFP

By Luana Sarmini-Buonaccorsi and Fulya Ozerkan in Istanbul – Ankara, Turkey | AFP | – US National Security Advisor John Bolton was in Ankara to discuss the planned US withdrawal from Syria Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned comments by a key US envoy over the future of a US-allied Syrian Kurdish militia […]