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January 7, 2015 The Paris Attack: A Possible Yemen Connection “Tell the media that this is al-Qaeda in the Yemen,” gunmen in today’s deadly attack in Paris... December 30, 2014 Putin’s Lower Vodka Prices Won’t Offset Russian Economic Woes in 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered vodka prices last week for the first time since the Kremlin adopted pricing standards in 2010... December 30, 2014 A Last Minute Palestinian Resolution at the UN Security Council The Jordanian delegation at the UN Security Council called for a vote on a draft resolution on Palestinian statehood Tuesday evening, in a session called for hastily earlier in the day. The resol... December 26, 2014 Reading Washington’s New Cuba Policy in Tehran President Barack Obama’s overturning of Washington’s longstanding commercial and diplomatic isolation of Cuba earlier this month has grabbed the attention of another country chafing u... December 18, 2014 EU Parliamentary Recognition of Palestine The European Union Parliament voted... December 16, 2014 The Peshawar Attack: Sickening, but No Surprise The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, one of many al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups operating in the South Asian country, launched one of its more horrific... December 15, 2014 Portugal’s Palestinian Recognition Adds Momentum to Diplomatic Push The Portuguese parliament on Friday called on the government to recognize an independent Palestinian state. The motion was filed on behalf of both the center-right and socialist parties, and it u... December 11, 2014 Khaled Mashal’s Road to Damascus Runs Through Tehran An... December 9, 2014 AQ Leader’s Arrest Highlights Turkey’s Terror Problem A joint U.S.-Turkish operation last month led to the capture of a senior... December 4, 2014 Blowback in Sana’a A car bomb exploded early Wednesday morning outside the Iranian ambassador&rsq... December 3, 2014 Khamenei’s Speech After the JPOA Extension Addressing high ranking members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Basij on Nov. 27, Iranian Supreme Leader Al... November 17, 2014 UAE’s Zealous New Terror List The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday its list of terrorist organizations under a new counterterrorism l... November 5, 2014 Iran’s Hidden Unemployment Figures Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani came into office in August 2013 promising better governance and economic reform. His administration launched investigations into corruption, which flourished... October 23, 2014 Sinai’s Volatility Increasingly Unites Egypt and Israel Militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula carried out a cross-border shooting attack on Wednesday, leaving an Israeli female... October 23, 2014 The Passing of Ayatollah Mahdavi-Kani Another man of the cloth has perished.... October 21, 2014 Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood Seeks Help from Hamas Last week, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the Muslim Brotherhood’s wing in Jordan, wrote an open... October 21, 2014 UK Blacklists Qatari for Terror Finance, Pledges Closer U.S. Coordination Ten months after the U.S. Treasury sanctioned suspected terrorist financier Abdulrahman bin Omeir al-Nuaymi, th... October 15, 2014 The Iran-China-Russia Triangle A wave of U.S. and EU financial sanctions aimed at Russia following its annexation of Crimea in the summer of 2014 have brought Russia and Iran closer. However, Russia is not the only economy tha... October 10, 2014 AQAP Capitalizes on the Chaos in Yemen Two coordinated suicide attacks believed to be carried out by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on... October 10, 2014 Khamenei’s Expanding Nuclear Redlines Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is at it again. Following a recent unsuccessful prob... October 7, 2014 Iran Sanctions Relief Backfires, Benefitting the IRGC Sanctions relief, according to the White House and supporters of the current negotiating strategy with Iran, empow... September 17, 2014 Iranian Leverage over Turkey? The Turkish daily Taraf published a blockbuster article Tuesday alleging that Iran has been blackmailing Tur... September 15, 2014 Turkey’s State-Owned Bank Probed By the New York Fed The United States Federal Reserve launched a probe last week into the New Y... September 4, 2014 Boko Haram Did Not Declare a Caliphate Reports suggest that Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, either declared a caliphate or announced that the group’s territorial gains have become part of a cal... August 28, 2014 Gaza Polls Show Abbas Popularity In a recent poll in Gaza, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas garnered a favorability of 54 percent. The poll, taken in... August 28, 2014 Countering Gaza’s Mortars Hours before the latest ceasefire was announced between Hamas and Israel, two Israeli civilians... August 21, 2014 The Worst Club in the Middle East Hamas made headlines yesterday when the organization’s West Bank... August 7, 2014 Kuwait’s Terrorism Finance Problems Compound Just one day after Kuwait announced new financial regulations to counter terrorism finance, the U.S. Treasury Department yesterday imposed sanctions on three individuals for fundraising in Kuwait... August 4, 2014 US-Qatar Alliance: Under Strain? Qatar, a tiny Persian Gulf petropower, is known to exert outsized influence in the Middle East. But between the war in Syria and the most recent conflict in Gaza, it may have pushed Washington to... July 31, 2014 Khamenei Mends Relations with Hamas Arm Hamas. That was the main message of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s speech on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the feast... July 30, 2014 Hamas’s New Commandos Hamas rocket barrages are reaching deeper into Israel than previous conflicts,... July 28, 2014 Turkey’s Flotilla Charity Seeks Renewed Confrontation with Israel The Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), the Turkish charity that organized the ill-fated flotilla to the Gaza Strip in 2010, appears to be preparing for round two – this time with the hel... July 25, 2014 Quds Day, Palestinian Protests, and West Bank Stability Palestinians in the West Bank organized one of the largest protest marches in recent history last night, sparking clashes with Israeli police late into the morning. The protest, dubbed the &ldquo... July 25, 2014 Quds Day In Iran Amidst the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Iran’s celebration of... July 18, 2014 Gaza Conflict Reveals Anti-Semitic Undercurrent in Turkey Violent protestors gathered yesterday in front of the Israeli embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul. Protesters in Istanbul... July 17, 2014 Gaza Rockets, Iranian Fingerprints Hamas has fired ... July 15, 2014 Gaza and Turkish Politics Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan condemned Israeli military operations in Gaza last week, and called... July 9, 2014 AQAP and ISIS Compete for Saudi Attention Saudi Arabia was reinforcing its northern border last w... July 8, 2014 Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Street Since the eruption of violence across Arab communities in Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank last week, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has endeavored to straddle a fine line between pr... July 2, 2014 Bandar’s Back. Again. Just after midnight local time, Saudi Arabia’s official news wire announced early Tuesday that the King issued royal decrees making major changes in the country’s national security ec... June 27, 2014 Operation Dignity: New Fighting Grips Libya Co-Authored by Nathaniel Barr Former Libyan army general Khalifa Hifter l... June 14, 2014 Turkey’s ISIS Crisis ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham -- “Sham” is Arabic for the Levant) took over the key Iraqi city of Mosul on June 11. Northern Iraqi Kurdish fighters, known as the p... June 10, 2014 Where Does Iran’s Supreme Leader Stand on Nuclear Diplomacy? As the deadline for the expiration of the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) nears, Iran and the P5+1 continue to work towards s... June 9, 2014 Rouhani In Ankara: The Latest Sign Of Warming Iran-Turkey Ties Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Ankara today with a large delegation for his first state-level trip to Turkey. He met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah G... June 5, 2014 Iranian Overtures To The Gulf Sheikh Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah, Emir of Kuwait, concluded a two day landmark visit to Iran on Monday, the first such visit by a Kuwa... June 4, 2014 Iran’s Electoral Fraud, Five Years On Five years after the June 12, 2009 presidential elections in Iran, which secured Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second presidential term but simultaneously provoked massive country-wide anti-regime demons... June 4, 2014 Turkey’s Double Standards On Protests Anti-government demonstrators gathered at Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Saturday, May 31 on the first anniversary of last year’s Gezi Park protests. As expected, the government responde... June 1, 2014 U.S. Policy Ramifications Of A Palestinian Unity Government Including Hamas Funding: Section 7040 of the 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act places limitations on U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority, including a prohibition on... June 1, 2014 Hamas Participation In Palestinian Government Likely Won’t Trigger Cut-Off After seven years of internecine conflict, the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas joined forces today in a new interim government made up of technocrats. The government, led by current Prime Mi... May 28, 2014 One Year After Gezi Today marks the one-year anniversary of the massive wave of anti-government unrest in Turkey now known the “Gezi Park protests.” It began when a small group of environmentalists gathe...

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