Battered by allegations that it mistreats migrant workers, aids terrorists and bribed its way to hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup, this secretive monarchy is trying something new: openness.
When it comes to defeating ISIS without putting boots on the ground, the US-led coalition is running out of ideas. A US-led initiative to train and equip 5,000 moderate Syrian rebels has graduated just 60 soldiers in six months, Iraqi security forces are still…
An agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program could create a bonanza for U.S. defense contractors who already are benefiting as the Obama administration tries to assuage Israeli and Gulf Arab concerns by cutting deals for more than $6 billion in military hardware.
Critics say Iran has out-maneuvered the outside world for almost two years, winning concession after concession in nuclear talks while itself giving away little. If so, the US appears to have turned the tables at a key juncture in the final negotiating round.
The misery of a common enemy can acquaint a country or group with strange bedfellows. Such is the case with Israel, Hamas and Egypt, which will likely put aside many of their differences in the wake of the Islamic State’s recent show of force in Sinai.
Beyond Assad and ISIS, a third moderate way can still exist for Syria if the Southern Front is empowered. The Syrian regime is weakening militarily in the face of the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) as well as the Islamist rebel coalition Jaysh al-Fateh that is sponsored by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and…
While the Obama administration’s strategy for Iraq requires substantial upgrading in light of recent Islamic State (or ISIS or ISIL) successes in and around Ramadi in particular, the plan for Syria is in much worse shape. The peace process is dead. So are a quarter million Syrians, with another 12 million displaced.
A just-released video from ISIS shows militants executing 25 captives in the ruins of a Roman amphitheater in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The graphic video begins with images of the Quran, followed by gruesome scenes showing what appears to be the aftermath of fighting, with bodies in the street.
Seven weeks after their frenetic retreat from Ramadi, Iraqi security forces are preparing to mount a counteroffensive in the coming weeks to try to reclaim the pivotal western Iraqi city from the Islamic State, American and Iraqi officials say.
President Obama said on a rare visit to the Pentagon Monday that he isn’t planning to send more U.S. troops to Iraq to fight the Islamic State, saying local forces must prevail against the extremist group.