Politics & Security - AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

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Politics & Security

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) Ousted party leader Ozgur Ozel waves to supporters from atop a police water cannon vehicle after being forcibly evicted by police from his party’s headquarters on May 24, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey.

Top ally of Turkey’s Erdogan backs state funding for Ozel’s breakaway party

Devlet Bahceli’s suggestion exposes a more nuanced position within the country’s governing alliance over the ongoing legal crackdown against Turkey’s main opposition.

David's Sling.

Explainer

As Turkey rivalry heats up, Greece to acquire $4B Israeli air defense system

The Greek defense minister said that the air defense system will be operational within 35 months.

Iranian Presidential Office / AFP via Getty Images

Iraq deepens Iran ties days after US investment push

The Iraqi premier visited Tehran shortly after his trip to Washington for talks focusing on economic cooperation and plans to develop a cross-border railway network.

Latest News

Dozens killed in Yemen clashes as Houthis escalate threats against Saudi Arabia

Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP via Getty Images

Trump says Saudi nuclear deal 'totally subject' to Israel normalization

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Turkey to begin surveys for planned northern Cyprus gas pipeline

Turkey's servicemen stand at attention on a Turkish submarine as they participate in the live-fire phase of the Blue Homeland 2026 tactical military exercises in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in Antalya on April 9, 2026.

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Diplomatic Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Ezgi Akin

Associate Editor (Turkey)

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

Ben Caspit

Israel Columnist

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

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Protesters clash with Israeli security forces during a demonstration against Israeli settler attacks on the Palestinian West Bank village of Huwara, Tel Aviv, Feb. 27, 2023.

Israelis donate over $300,000 for Palestinians attacked by settlers

Horrified by the sites of destruction cause by settlers at the Palestinian Huwara village, thousands of Israelis donated money for reconstruction.

Iraq Najaf

Analysis

Iraq's religious authorities stay out of Shiite conflict

Iraq's top Shiite religious authority, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, remains influential in Iraqi politics, but is remaining silent at a dangerous time for the country amid high tensions among Shiite parties.

Ali Mamouri

ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images

As Israel's raids grow in West Bank, so does Palestinian support for armed groups

The armed factions in the West Bank are enjoying overwhelming popular support as the cycle of violence intensifies.

An Israeli settler (R) argues with an Israeli soldier along a road in the town of Huwara.

Analysis

US urges Israel to hold settlers accountable for 'vigilante violence'

The State Department condemned the recent shootings of Israelis as well as the deadly rampage carried out by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

A woman on September 15, 2022, visits an exhibition titled 'Allo, Beirut?', that shows archives of Lebanon's troubled past fused with artistic depictions of a grim present, at the capital's Beit Beirut heritage-house-turned-museum. - Newspaper clippings, film negatives and diary entries from before Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war tell the story of government corruption, public sector strikes and student protest movements.(Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

‘A huge crime’: Archive of Lebanon's news agency since 1961 is 'stolen'

The archive belonging to the National News Agency contained photographs of Lebanon’s civil war.

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, speaks with Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland, during the 2023 Munich Security Conference (MSC) on February 18, 2023 in Munich, Germany. The Munich Security Conference brings together defence leaders and stakeholders from around the world and is taking place February 17-19. Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine is dominating the agenda. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Sweden, Finland NATO accession talks with Turkey to resume in days

Turkey says talks with Sweden and Finland will soon resume on Sweden's and Finland's bids to join the NATO alliance.

People displaced by conflict receive food aid and provisions to meet their basic needs.

US announces $444 million to Yemen as humanitarian needs soar

Despite the fresh US assistance, a donors conference for Yemen raised less than one-third of what the United Nations said is needed to avert further humanitarian crisis.

KONSTANTINOS TSAKALIDIS/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images

Fury in Turkey as Red Crescent sells tents following quakes

Turks' ongoing fury over the government's response to the devastating earthquakes has ramped up over reports that the Turkish Red Crescent sold thousands of tents instead of distributing them to victims.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (L) and Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad (R) give a press conference at the Foreign Ministry headquarters, Damascus, Syria, Feb. 27, 2023.

Egypt's FM Shoukry visits Syria, Turkey in renewed earthquake diplomacy

The top Egyptian diplomat's visit to Syria and Turkey marks a first after almost a decade.

Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan meets Ukraine's Zelenskyy on first such visit to Kyiv since 1991.

Saudi Arabia signs $400 million deal for Ukraine aid in historic visit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this was the first official visit of the Saudi foreign affairs minister in more than 30 years, and most senior for any Arab delegation since Russia's invasion last year.

Israeli security forces examine the site of a reported shooting attack, near Jericho in the occupied West Bank on February 27, 2023. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

US confirms citizen killed in West Bank as Israeli-Palestinian violence escalates

Extensive damage occurred in the West Bank village of Huwara after a night of torching and vandalism by Israeli settlers and following a deadly Palestinian attack earlier on Sunday that killed two Israeli brothers.

A family pass by a ruined building in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 25, 2023.

New earthquake hits Turkey’s disaster zone, killing one, trapping several

The new quake collapsed several buildings in a province that is among 11 Turkish provinces that were badly hit by the massive Feb. 6 earthquakes.