Middle East Near You

The Iraqi parliamentary elections in May has predictably been followed by a drawn-out process of complex manoeuvring and negotiations to determine the complexion of the new government. When it...

This year’s Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Iran was staged with greater fanfare than ever, not least because of rising tensions with Israel. Last month Israel claimed to have staged...

Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s meeting last Thursday with a Syrian religious delegation led by Religious Endowments Minister Mohammad Abdul Sattar Al-Sayyed unfolded at a critical juncture in the Syrian...

Last week’s visit to the UK by Iranian deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi appears to signal warming relations between Iran and the United Kingdom. Araghchi’s meeting with UK officials,...

The military confrontation between Israeli and Syrian/Iranian forces on 10 February set off widespread analysis and speculation on the probability of a major regional war. The severity of the...

Last week’s incendiary comments on Bahrain by a senior Iranian journalist and advisor to the country’s leader has reignited debate on the Islamic Republic’s approach to the ongoing political...

By most accounts, the Congress of Syrian National Dialogue held in the Russian resort of Sochi was less than a resounding success. Billed as the Russian equivalent to the...

The Turkish offensive to wrest control of the Afrin region from the local branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is set to become a tough and bloody battle....

Since early in the new year the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies have been conducting an offensive against the country’s last major rebel bastion in the north-western Idlib...

One of the striking features of the Iranian protests of late December and early January was the focus on the country’s foreign policy. Protesters often took a swipe at...

As the protests and rioting which gripped Iranian provincial towns subside, Iranian leaders and officials have wasted little time in attributing blame to foreign powers. The Iranian leader, Ayatollah...

“We are Aryans, we don’t worship Arabs” and “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon; I sacrifice my life for Iran” were just two of the bigoted and radical slogans voiced by...

The decision by US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a major turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as in the broader Arab-Israeli...

The killing of Yemen’s former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier this month at the hands of the Houthis has dramatically raised the stakes of the Yemeni conflict. Freed from...

As the repercussions of US President Donald Trump’s highly controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital continues to reverberate across the region and beyond, there is much concern...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strong stance on US President Donald Trump’s anticipated recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is yet another indication of a growing Turkish-US split. Turkey’s...

Last week’s summit in the Russian town of Sochi between the Russian, Iranian and Turkish leaders is being billed as a potential breakthrough in the quest to bring peace...

With the defeat of Daesh in Syria and Iraq, the mainstream media is focussing on the growing tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia as the next big showdown in...

The Saudi decision to cause a political crisis in Lebanon by forcing Saad Hariri to resign his post as Lebanese prime minister has begun speculation of yet more dramatic...

The Syrian conflict is rapidly coming to a conclusion, as demonstrated by the government’s retaking of the strategic Deir Ez-Zor province. The Syrian government has pressed home its advantage...

The reconciliation accord reached between Hamas and Fatah earlier this month has raised hopes of lasting Palestinian unity in the face of an increasingly belligerent Israeli government. This is...

The Iraqi Army and allied Popular Mobilisation Units’ lightening and relatively bloodless offensive to retake Kirkuk and other disputed areas is being widely interpreted as a shot in the...

Donald Trump’s incendiary attack on Iran last Friday stands out as his most important action to date as US president. Whilst his decision to decertify the landmark nuclear accord...

In a year of surprises in the Middle East, the visit to Moscow by the Saudi Arabian King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud is arguably the biggest surprise of all....

Barely a week after the controversial Iraqi Kurdish advisory independence referendum, the Spanish region of Catalonia held a similar vote. The similarities stop there, as the robust reaction of...

As the Syrian conflict gradually winds down it is becoming easier to identify the winners and the losers. At a global level the conflict is seen widely as a...

As the Iraqi Kurdish administration continues to defy international opinion by pressing ahead with its plans to hold an advisory independence referendum next Monday, Iraq’s two most powerful neighbouring...

With the referendum on proposed Kurdish independence just two weeks away, the stage is being set for the gravest political and potential military crisis in post-Baathist Iraq. Months of...

As the fight against Daesh continues to grab international headlines, behind the scenes Iraqi politics is gearing up for a reset. With provincial and parliamentary elections scheduled for next...

Credible reports centred on the collapse of Ahrar Al-Sham in north-west Syria point toward an important shift in the six-year Syrian rebellion. The group was widely regarded as the...

For the past three years virtually all news related to Iraq has been dominated by Daesh and the struggle to defeat it. Political developments in Baghdad have gone largely...

The full implications of Saudi Arabia’s three-months old siege of the Qatif town of Awamiyah are only just beginning to emerge. Pictures depicting wholesale destruction and civil war-like conditions...