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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Turkish House in New York on Sept. 19, 2023.

Analysis

Erdogan-Netanyahu war of words signals deeper rivalry for regional influence

The latest Erdogan-Netanyahu clash underscored how Turkey-Israel tensions have grown beyond the Palestinian issue and into a wider regional rivalry spanning Syria, Lebanon, Iran and the eastern Mediterranean.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

AAREF WATAD/AFP via Getty Images

Russia in talks on 'reformatting' its military sites in Syria: What to know

Moscow signals it wants to maintain its presence in Syria, where President Ahmed al-Sharaa recently said that Russian bases will be converted into training centers.

Latest News

Syria says Iraqi oil shipments surge as Damascus courts foreign energy investment

A long convoys of Iraqi diesel-laden tanker trucks line up along the highway Tartus-Baniyas highway as they wait to unload their cargo at the Baniyas port refinery on the Mediterranean Sea, on April 15, 2026.

Explainer

Saudi Arabia, Turkey advance plans to revive historic Hejaz Railway

An old locomotive sits outside the Hejaz rail station in old Damascus on February 23, 2010. The Hejaz railway ran from Damascucs to Medina in Saudi Arabia and was part of the Ottoman railway network. AFP PHOTO/LOUAI BESHARA (Photo credit should read LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel-Iran escalation grounds flights across parts of Middle East

An Airbus A321 airliner arrives at the Mehrabad international airport during the delivery of the first batch of planes to the Iranian state airline Iran Air in the capital Tehran on Jaunary 12, 2017. - The aircraft arrived as part of an order for 100 other Airbus planes with a list price of around $20 billion (19 billion euros) on December 22, placed after the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic republic. It will be used for internal flights landed at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. (Photo by ATTA

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

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

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Danny Makki

In London, reporting on Syrian politics and culture

Ali Hashem

In Doha, reporting on Iran, regional politics, conflict

Cagatay Cebe

In Istanbul, reporting on security and counterterrorism

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) shakes hands with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad during an official welcoming ceremony in Tehran October 2, 2010. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTXSXO5

Iranian Parliamentarian SaysAssad Could Win Elections

In an exclusive interview with Mojtaba Mousavi for Al-Monitor, Iranian parliamentarian Ismaeil Kowsari downplayed hopes for a breakthrough in P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran and suggested that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could win elections in 2014.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks about a U.S. pledge to provide non-lethal aid to Syrian opposition, at a news conference at Villa Madama in Rome February 28, 2013. REUTERS/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool (ITALY - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3EE7Y

No Military Solution for Assad Or the Rebels

Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can't "shoot his way out" of the civil war; but neither can the opposition, writes Geoffrey Aronson.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) shakes hands with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu after their news conference at Ankara Palas in Ankara March 1, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3EG52

Davutoglu Invokes Ottomanism As a New Order for Mideast

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's suggestion of an Ottoman model for a new Middle East order is likely a misreading of regional politics that could prove hard for Turkey to back away from, writes Tulin Daloglu.

Israelis use binoculars to see the fighting in the Syrian village of al-Jamlah, from the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, close to the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria March 7, 2013. Israel voiced confidence on Thursday that the United Nations could secure the release of U.N. peacekeepers seized by Syrian rebels near the Golan Heights, signalling it would not intervene in the crisis. Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internati

Israel: Re-thinking Syria's Opposition

Shlomi Eldar writes that a film clip showing Syrian rebels shooting into the air along the Golan border offers an ominous signal to the world, and especially to Israel.

Iraqi police stand guard during foot patrol at Rabia, near the main border between Iraq and Syria March 2, 2013. Clashes between the Syrian army and rebels at a border post brought the civil war close to neighbouring Iraq, where troops fired warning shots into the air, residents, officials and a Reuters reporter said. Insurgents seized control of half of the northeastern Syrian town of Yaarabiya, including a border post with Iraq, in a battle with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad on Friday and earl

The Iraqi and Turkish Fault Lines

The Syria war spreads to Iraq; Turkey is increasingly divided over Prime Minister Erdogan’s Syrian policies; and Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to the region includes progress toward a political solution in Syria.

A soldier loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad walks towards an army tank in the Khan al-Assal area, near Aleppo city March 6, 2013. REUTERS/George Ourfalian (SYRIA - Tags: CONFLICT MILITARY POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3ENMO

Rival Kurdish Parties Clash in Syria

Fighting between rival Kurdish groups in Syria adds further uncertainty to the war in Syria, writes Wladimir van Wilgenburg.

Fighters from Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra watch snipers on the front line during a fight with Syria forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad in Aleppo December 24, 2012. Syria special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi discussed solving the country's conflict with President Bashar al-Assad on Monday, but the opposition expressed deepening frustration with the mission following what it called the latest massacre of civilians. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR3BVVS

Jabhat al-Nusra and Hezbollah In First Confrontation

For the first time in the 23-month-old Syrian civil war, Jabhat al-Nusra and Hezbollah have been involved in direct confrontations, writes Jean Aziz.

Louis Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon and the Head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, attends a mass ceremony to enthrone him in Baghdad, March 6, 2013. REUTERS/Saad Shalash (IRAQ - Tags: RELIGION) - RTR3EN22

Fear of Islamic Extremism Brings Eastern Churches Closer

There are growing links between the various churches of Eastern Christianity, driven by what they see as the threats to Christianity in the Middle East as a result of the Arab Spring, writes Nasser Chararah.

Syrian-Kurdish women and members of the Popular Protection Units (YPG), an armed opposition group fighting against the Syrian government, stand guard during the funeral of a comrade, Basil Zeydan, in the northern Syrian border village of al Qamishli on December 1, 2012. The Syrian army shelled the outskirts of Damascus in a drive to establish a secure perimeter around the capital, including the key airport road that has come under sustained rebel attack. AFP PHOTO/GIULIO PETROCCO (Photo credit should

Syrian Kurdish Militia Takes Over Oil Fields

Syrian Kurdish groups have seized control of several key oil fields, provoking concerns among the Syrian opposition and Turkey about the coming division of Syria, writes Wladimir van Wilgenburg.

Smoke rises after what the photographer said were missiles fired by a Syrian Air Force fighter jet loyal to President Bashar al-Assad at the Syrian town of Yaarabiya, near the main border between Syria and Iraq March 2, 2013. Clashes between the Syrian army and rebels at a border post brought the civil war close to neighbouring Iraq, where troops fired warning shots into the air, residents, officials and a Reuters reporter said. Insurgents seized control of half of the northeastern Syrian town of Yaarabiya,

Iraq's Border Becomes New Fault Line in Syrian War

An ambush on the Iraq-Syria border that killed 62 Syrian soldiers and nine Iraqi guards has brought the Syrian civil war to Iraq, writes Mushreq Abbas.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a news conference with Prince Saud al-Faisal (not pictured) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh March 4, 2013. REUTERS/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3EK39

John Kerry's Syria File

Secretary of State John Kerry, a veteran and critic of the Vietnam war, is now himself a decision maker regarding U.S. policy toward the civil war in Syria, writes Geoffrey Aronson.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (2nd L) holds his first meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General John M. Paxton, Jr. (L), U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey (4th R), General of the Army Ray Odierno (3rd R), U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jon Greenert (2nd R) and U.S. Army General Frank Grass (R) in a briefing room called "The Tank" at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, March 1, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) -

Hagel, Syria, the P5+1 and Iran

The Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense as the United States announced $60 million in non-lethal aid to the Syrian Opposition Council; Israel, Iraq and Lebanon continue to be concerned about the regionalization of the war in Syria; and Iran puts Syria in play after the P5+1 meetings.