Armed Militias and Extremist Groups

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani meets with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in Ankara, Aug. 6, 2026.

Syria's Shibani updates Turkey on Kurds' integration, slams Israel during Ankara visit

The visit highlighted Ankara's growing influence in post-Assad Syria, with the two neighbors expanding strategic coordination on security and regional affairs.

Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Netanyahu’s Gaza double game: Back Trump, reassure Israel’s right

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to both give the impression that Israel retains total freedom of action in Gaza while allowing the Board of Peace to move ahead with President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Tiziana FABI / AFP via Getty Images

What to know about Lebanon-Israel 7th round of talks held in Rome

The US, Israel and Lebanon have sent expanded delegations to the talks, set to continue for three days and expected to focus on security arrangements, border issues and reconstruction.

Palestinian Hamas militants arrive to secure the area as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), search for the last two remaining bodies of hostages -an Israeli soldier and a Thai national- from under the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern of Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2025.

Analysis

How Hamas disarmament deal may test Iran's regional strategy

A possible Hamas decision to disarm would represent more than a Gaza development, testing Iran's decades-old strategy of projecting power through regional allies.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

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Analysis

Renewed Iraq attacks test Zaidi’s push to disarm Iran-backed militias

Mourners carry one of the bodies of members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) who were killed earlier in Diyala in central Iraq by US-Saudi strikes, during the funeral in Baghdad on July 29, 2026. The US-Saudi strikes killed at least 20 militants, including Iranians, according to the Hashed al-Shaabi. The US and Saudi Arabia said the strikes were in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities. (Photo by murtadha ridha / AFP via Getty Images) /

Mustafa Salim

By Mustafa Salim

Turkey, Pakistan among 14 countries backing Saudi Arabia's anti-Houthi Red Sea alliance

A Saudi navy ship is pictured docked at King Faisal navy base in Jeddah before the departure of a team to Port Sudan to help with the evacuation efforts of people fleeing Sudan, on April 29, 2023.

China cuts deal with Houthis, adjusts for long US war with Iran

This aerial photo shows a tanker unloading imported crude oil at a terminal port in Qingdao, in China's eastern Shandong province on June 25, 2026. (Photo by CN-STR / AFP via Getty Images) / China OUT

Explainer

Tankers keep sailing Red Sea despite Houthi threats as Saudi oil lifeline faces strains

A commercial vessel passes through an international shipping lane off Yemen's Hanish Island in the Red Sea on July 27, 2026.

Men hold a sign showing the face of Ahmed Mutawasilian, a fighter in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was kidnapped and killed in Lebanon in 1981, as they stand upon a podium showing a picture of a burning Israeli flag defaced with footprints during a rally marking Al-Quds Day (Jerusalem), a commemorative day held annually on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan by an initiative started by late Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Tehran on April

Israel: seizure of millions of dollars in crypto linked to Iran IRGC, Hezbollah

The news follows Hamas announcing it will not use Bitcoin anymore and more government scrutiny of cryptocurrency transactions, including by the United States.

This picture taken on July 21, 2022 shows a view of sacks of confiscated captagon pills, presented at the judicial police headquarters in the city of Zahle in Lebanon's central Bekaa valley. - A decade of appalling civil war has left Syria fragmented and in ruins but one thing crosses every frontline: the drug fenethylline, commercially known as captagon. The stimulant -- once notorious for its association with Islamic State fighters -- has spawned an illegal $10-billion industry that not only props up the

Lebanon seizes Captagon shipment bound for central Africa, Gulf

Lebanon's latest bust comes as US sanctions and other measures work to counter trafficking in the country.

Israeli co-leader of the Zionist Union party and Labour Party's leader Isaac Herzog (L) meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah on August 18, 2015. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI (Photo credit should read ABBAS MOMANI/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel's Herzog calls Abbas, condemns settler violence against Palestinians

Speaking on the phone with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli President Isaac Herzog slammed the violent rampage of settlers in recent days in several Palestinian villages.

IAKOVOS HATZISTAVROU/AFP via Getty Images

Israel thanks Cyprus for stopping alleged Iranian plan to attack Israelis

Israel is expressing gratitude to Cypriot authorities who reportedly stopped an Iranian attack on Israelis in the country, where Iran was accused of plotting to attack Israelis back in 2021.

Smoke and fire billow during mock cross-border raids by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, part of large-scale military exercise, in Aaramta bordering Israel on May 21, 2023 ahead of the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP) (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it downed Israeli drone on border

The Israeli army acknowledged the downing, saying the drone crashed in Lebanese territory during routine activity.

A picture taken on Aug. 2, 2018, shows a man riding a motorcycle past destroyed buildings in the opposition-held southern city of Daraa.

South Syria increasingly unstable even as normalization proceeds with Assad

Economic turmoil and failed attempts at reconciliation over a decade after the beginning of Syria's civil war keep the country on unstable footing.

An Israeli soldier extinguishes a bush fire caused by a Molotov cocktail during clashes with pro-Hezbollah Lebanese demonstrators at the border near Marjayoun on May 25, 2023. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP) (Photo by MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Israel’s control challenged by Hezbollah in north, restive West Bank

Growing settler violence without the army or law enforcement agencies reacting reflects a worrying phenomenon — of the Israeli government losing control across the board.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

A Palestinian woman carries a piece of wood as she stands outside her house, which was set on fire by Israeli settlers the day before, in Turmus Aya near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, on June 22, 2023. A resident of Turmus Ayya told AFP around "200 settlers" attacked the Palestinian village, while AFP journalists in the village saw scorched homes, buildings and wounded people being evacuated by ambulance. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinian Authority reports 310 attacks by Israeli settlers in West Bank

Violence is ongoing since a Monday Israeli raid in Jenin that killed seven Palestinians and included rare airstrikes.

Almog Cohen (R) of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) and right wing activists demonstrate in support of the Israeli army operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, at the Tel Aviv University campus on Jan. 30, 2023.

Knesset member threatens to 'blow up' Palestinian, Israeli orphans' summer camp

A debate at the Knesset Education Committee meeting grew heated over a summer camp for Israeli and Palestinian orphans, threatening the funding of a venerable Israeli children's institution.

Jenin, West Bank

Five Palestinians killed in Israel's West Bank raid as Hamas leader visits Iran

The latest violence left five Palestinians dead and wounded at least 91 more, while the Israeli army said seven of its troops were injured in the fighting.

Women walk along a mural painting behind which appears a giant billboard bearing a picture of the 'Fattah' hypersonic missile, in Tehran on July 7, 2023. Iran's Revolutionary Guards unveiled an intermediate range ballistic missile on June 6 capable of travelling at hypersonic speeds of up to 15 times the speed of sound, state television reported. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

In new purge, Iran expels independent, Reformist professors

Iran's hard-line government is forcing its own critics out of universities.

A man holds up an Argentinian flag during a demo at Mayo square, in Buenos Aires on January 19, 2015, against the death of Argentine public prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found shot dead earlier, just days after accusing President Cristina Kirchner of obstructing a probe into a 1994 Jewish center bombing. Nisman, 51, who was just hours away from testifying at a congressional hearing, was found dead overnight in his apartment in the trendy Puerto Madero neighbourhood of the capital. "I can confirm that a

Lebanon: Argentina issues arrest warrant for 4 Hezbollah operatives in AMIA bombing

The four suspects are linked to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured hundreds.