ISLAMABAD (AP) — Militant attacks are on the rise in Pakistan amid a growing religiosity that has brought greater intolerance, prompting one expert to voice concern the country could be overwhelmed by religious extremism. Pakistani authorities are embracing strengthening religious belief...

 The Fatemiyoun Brigade and the Iranian militias have beefed up their presence in Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria by bringing in more Syrian elements into their ranks and intensifying their religious, military and cultural activities in order to expand and preserve their...

Forget about oil and arms. Coronavirus vaccines are emerging as the newest currency of choice in the Middle East. Israel’s reopening of its economy, combined with a murky prisoner swap with Syria and the arrival of a batch of vaccines in the Gaza Strip, have all underscored how those with...

The US announcement that it will focus on fighting Daesh remnants in Syria rather than guarding oil fields in the region could force Turkey to rethink its strategy in the war-wracked country, analysts believe. In a break from the Trump-era policy, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday...

Around 95 Arab personalities and Christian clerics have petitioned French, American, German and British governments to lift the sanctions set against the Assad regime for having caused a humanitarian crisis in Syria, according to the petitioners; a message which Syrian analysts unanimously...

During one of the most politically divisive years in recent memory, the number of active hate groups in the U.S. actually declined as far-right extremists migrated further to online networks, reflecting a splintering of white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups that are more difficult to track....

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is confronting the political risk that comes with grand ambition. As one of his first acts, Biden offered a sweeping immigration overhaul last week that would provide a path to U.S. citizenship for the estimated 11 million people who are in the United...

A lot of the characters are the same for President-elect Joe Biden but the scene is far starker as he reassembles a team of veteran negotiators to get back into the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. President Donald Trump worked to blow up the multinational deal to contain Iran’s nuclear program...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is going nowhere. He withstood the military threat posed by a decade-long war and even as the country faced its worst food and economic crisis over the last few months he has managed to cling to power. Some in the West had hoped the economic pressure,...

Experts have recently been arguing that the frequent appearance of Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad’s potraits in government offices has political significance, especially with presidential elections scheduled for April and May. Asma’s pictures have raised questions about whether she...

For weeks, ISIS has managed to escalate its attacks against Syrian regime forces and their allies in the Syrian Badia, largely suggesting that the terror group has succeeded in reorganizing its ranks in the vast desert region. This resurgence comes less than two years after ISIS...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden has an Iran problem. And, it’s getting more complicated by the day. Thanks to provocative moves by Iran and less-than-coherent actions by the outgoing Trump administration, the president-elect is facing an increasingly uncertain situation when it comes to Iran, a...

The 2020 presidential election is over. But President Donald Trump’s baseless efforts to undermine it, and the consequences of those undemocratic actions, will linger in America for far longer. It is increasingly clear that there is no fact, no piece of evidence and no court ruling that...

Ankara believes besieged Turkish troops could be used as leverage against it if Syrian government forces stage new offensive Turkey plans to pull out from more military positions in areas of Syria’s Idlib province held by the Syrian government, Turkish sources told Middle East Eye on...

In 30 October, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement expressing its deep pain and regret for the dozens of deaths and injuries in Izmir following an earthquake in western Turkey. Most observers paid little attention to the statement and considered it a customary...

On 20 October, without much media hype, Turkish forces stationed in the Syrian city of Morek began withdrawing from their base.  Morek is the most important Turkish post north of the Syrian regime-held city of Hama and borders the rebel-controlled northwestern part of the...

About 300 British troops have arrived in the troubled West African state of Mali at a time when the epicentre of the Islamic State group (IS) appears to have moved from the Middle East to Africa. In a three-year mission named Operation Newcombe they are joining a force of around 15,000 UN...

This month, the BBC has launched a major new series on Radio 4 called Mayday, the result of a year-long investigation into the mysterious death in Istanbul last November of James Le Mesurier, co-founder of the White Helmets. Each of the episodes takes the listener on a labyrinthine...

When the Arab revolts that were sweeping the region and toppling autocrats like dominoes reached Syria, Bashar al-Assad's days at the helm looked numbered. Ten years on however, he has defied the odds, surviving international isolation and the temporary loss of two thirds of the national...

Russia took on an active role in the war in Syria five years ago, saying it was fighting terrorism. What has it achieved and at what price? Experts give their assessments. Russia first announced military operations in Syria on September 30, 2015. The goal, Russian President Vladimir...