Maritime strategy

Badr Abdelatty

Turkey’s Fidan to visit Egypt with Libya, Gaza on agenda

The top Turkish diplomat’s Cairo visit comes as Ankara-Cairo engagement deepens amid shifting power balances in North Africa and shared concerns over Gaza.

Greece s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrives to attend the European Council in Brussels on June 26, 2025. EU leaders meet from June 26 to 27 to discuss geoeconomic challenges and the ongoing developments in Ukraine and the Middle East. (Photo by Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas via AFP) (Photo by MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

Greece threatens to block Turkey from EU loans over Aegean, Cyprus tensions

Greece and Cyprus oppose Turkey’s participation in the EU’s SAFE program over long-standing disputes, even as other EU powers including Germany and Italy deepen defense ties with Ankara amid shifting regional alliances.

Turkish police officers patrols next to the drilling ship 'Yavuz'

Analysis

Erdogan’s gamble: Turkey bets on Libya to pursue East Med dominance

The prospect of Libya’s eastern-based parliament approving a crucial maritime deal with Turkey is growing as Ankara-Benghazi rapprochement intensifies.

Ezgi Akin

In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO

Giorgos Gerapetritis (L), foreign minister of Greece, speaks with Hakan Fidan (R), foreign minister of Turkey during the second meeting of North Atlantic Council of foreign ministers at NATO headquarters, Brussels, Dec. 4, 2024.

Turkey's Fidan heads to New York for Cyprus talks as Libya tensions flare

The top Turkish diplomat will attend UN-hosted Cyprus talks amid rising tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Latest News

Analysis

Is Red Sea truce over? What Houthi attacks mean for US, regional stability

Houthis ship

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente , Rosaleen Carroll

In first attack after truce, Houthis claim to have sunk ship in Red Sea: What to know

A picture taken during an organized tour by Yemen's Houthi rebels on Nov. 22, 2023, shows the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, seized by Houthi fighters two days earlier, approaching the port in the Red Sea off Yemen's province of Hodeida.

Global shippers sound alarm over Strait of Hormuz amid Iran-US-Israel tensions

Iranian soldiers take part in the "National Persian Gulf day" in the Strait of Hormuz, on April 30, 2019. The date coincides with the anniversary of a successful military campaign by Shah Abbas the Great of Persia in the 17th century, which drove the Portuguese navy out of the Hormuz Island, after which is named the waterway which separates the Gulf from the Sea of Oman. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Amid rapprochement with Libya’s Hifter, Turkey says parliament reviewing maritime deal

Libyan military strongman Khalifa Hifter (2nd L)

Brett McGurk, US National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, listens to Amos Hochstein, the US Senior Advisor for Energy Security, as Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Saudi ambassador to the US, looks on during an investment agreement signing ceremony between the US and Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 16, 2022. (Photo by Amer HILABI / AFP) (Photo by AMER HILABI/AFP via Getty Images)

US delegation in Israel after Saudi visit, discussing regional projects with Netanyahu

Advancing the I2U2 initiative, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to meet in Jerusalem with envoys of the Biden administration, following their trip to Saudi Arabia where they held extensive talks on infrastructure projects that involve India, Gulf countries and Israel.

This US Navy handout screenshot of a video shows fast-attack craft from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy swarming Greek-owned oil tanker Niovi as it transits the Strait of Hormuz

Iran's IRGC seizes second oil tanker in Gulf waters in six days, says US Navy

The incident happened off UAE coast of Fujairah and involved a Panama-flagged Niovi vessel.

This picture taken on June 15, 2019, shows tanker ships in the waters of the Gulf of Oman

Iran's IRGC seizes oil tanker in Gulf of Oman

Open-source reports indicated the Advantage Sweet was bound for Houston, Texas, when the United States said it was seized by Iran's IRGC navy on Thursday afternoon.

A picture taken on February 21, 2022 shows fishing boats off a beach on Yemen's Red Sea coast in the Khokha district of the war-ravaged country's western province of Hodeida. (Photo by Khaled Ziad / AFP) (Photo by KHALED ZIAD/AFP via Getty Images)

Yacht carrying Russians, Egyptians goes missing off Yemen coast

The yacht’s owner says the crew sent a distress call about a pirate attack.

DONT USE - Gulf Pulse

A woman enjoys the sea as a Greek army rib returns from patrol on the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo.

Turkey, Greece row reignited over 'Turkaegean' trademark dispute

Turkey’s tourism campaign with the slogan “Turkaegean” reignites tensions in Athens, which considers it both cultural usurpation and a threat to Greek sovereignty in the Aegean.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and his wife Emine Erdogan (L) sit in their Togg T10X, Turkey's first domestically-produced electric car, after receiving it from the company at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on April 3, 2023. (Photo by Adem ALTAN / AFP) (Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Egypt’s FM to visit Turkey ahead of restoration of ties: Cavusoglu

The Turkish government unleashed a fresh regional charm offensive ahead of the critical May 14 vote, as the top Turkish diplomat announced planned and potential meetings with his Egyptian and Syrian counterparts.

The USS Florida sails during "Giant Shadow," a Naval Sea Systems Command/Naval Submarine Forces exercise to test the capabilities of the Navy's future guided missile submarines January 22, 2003 off the coast of the Bahamas.

US Navy sends guided-missile submarine to Middle East amid Iran tensions

US show of force comes as Pentagon extends aircraft carrier deployment following last month's lethal attack by Iran-backed militias on US personnel in Syria.

A supporter of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stands in the back of a pickup truck bearing his portrait and loudspeakers, in the capital Cairo's Tahrir square on January 25, 2018, as the country marks the seventh anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ended the 30-year reign of former President Hosni Mubarak. / AFP PHOTO / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP via Getty Images)

Egypt's Sisi unlikely to reconcile with Erdogan before Turkey's election

The Turkish military presence in Libya remains the key snag in Ankara’s efforts to mend fences with Egypt.

MICHAEL VARAKLAS/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey, Greece take strides in Ankara meeting as aid diplomacy continues

A meeting of senior Turkish and Greek diplomats in Ankara is the latest diplomatic contact spurred by post-disaster diplomacy, and the fourth meeting of the “Positive Agenda” initiative.

Egypt port

Egypt signs $1.6 billion deals with China, EU companies to develop sea ports

The Egyptian government wants its Red Sea and Mediterranean ports to help boost the economy amid rising inflation and declining foreign currency reserves.

An F-16 pilot from an airbase in Saudi Arabia gets ready to disembark from his aircraft after he was diverted to Kuwait because of bad weather after his mission into Iraq March 26, 2003 as Operation Iraqi Freedom continues after a pause in the air campaign due to bad weather. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt rank among world’s top 10 arms importers: SIPRI

Middle East countries made up more than a fourth of the top 40 global arms importers from 2018 to 2022, according to a new report.

MAZEN MAHDI/AFP via Getty Images

Western allies join US' experimental drone task force in Middle East

Task Force 59 is now fully operationally capable, Fifth Fleet commander Vice Adm. Brad Cooper told an audience of Navy personnel in Washington on Tuesday.