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Politics & Security

Israel's President Isaac Herzog gestures as he speaks during the World Economic Forum annual meeting, Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2026.

Herzog: Saudi normalization talks could resume as Gaza ceasefire enters next phase

The Israeli president said the rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia “should be the future vision of the Middle East.”

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump launches Board of Peace: We can do 'whatever we want'

President Donald Trump pledged Gaza will be "beautifully rebuilt” as his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, laid out a multi-year redevelopment and demilitarization plan.

Jalaa MAREY / AFP via Getty Images

What Israel stands to lose in Syria-SDF agreement

The agreement signed Jan. 18 for the integration of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces into the Syrian state will bolster not only Turkey, Israel’s foe, but also President Ahmed al-Sharaa while he negotiates a security deal with Israel.

RAQQA, SYRIA - JANUARY 19: Syrian government forces are deployed near Al-Aqtan prison on January 19, 2026 in Raqqa, Syria. Yesterday, the Syrian government announced that a nationwide ceasefire deal had been reached with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who had been clashing with government forces in recent weeks. The Kurdish-led force, a long-time ally of the United States in the fight against ISIS, had controlled large swaths of northwest Syria during the years of the country's civil war. T

US military airlifts Syria ISIS prisoners to Iraq after SDF retreat: What to know

The airlift underscored the speed with which Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s forces took control of camps and prisons previously secured by US-backed and Kurdish-led militias.

Jared Szuba

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

Latest News

Rifaat al-Assad, perpetrator of Syria's 1982 Hama massacre, dies at 88

A member of the Alawite community pastes on a wall, in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli , on December 6, 2007, pictures of Syrian opposition leader Rifaat al-Assad (R) and his son Ribal.

Russia to host PA’s Abbas as Putin mulls joining Trump's Gaza Board of Peace

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas (R) arrive for their talks in Moscow on May 10, 2025.

Trump warns Hamas will be 'blown away' if it fails to disarm

US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 21, 2026.

Turkey, Israel, Pakistan to join Trump's Board of Peace as Italy hedges: What to know

US President Donald Trump greets Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war on Oct. 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

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

A woman wearing a hijab with a bouquet of flowers in her hand walks down a street in the Barbes district in Paris on June 25, 2023.

Analysis

French Jews, Muslims warn of far-right rise in upcoming elections

The far-right National Rally is expected to make big gains in upcoming legislative elections, with immigration and cost of living among central issues motivating voters.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Saeed Jalili, ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator and Iran's presidential candidate, waves to the crowd after casting his vote at a polling station in Tehran during Iran's presidential election on June 28, 2024.

Polls close in Iran's election with vote marred by apathy, discontent

The four candidates, who are all approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are running at a time of economic crunch and discontent with the government inside Iran.

An Aviation Boatswains Mate (Bottom) signals to the pilots of an MV-22 Osprey assault support aircraft, assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, as it departs off the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), Baltic Sea, June 7, 2022.

Why is US deploying Marines to East Med amid Israel-Hezbollah tension?

The deployment broadens the options available to decision-makers in Washington amid concerns that a threatened Israeli offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon may trigger a wider regional war.

Exterior view of the U.S. Capitol building prior to a roundtable discussion on Supreme Court Ethics conducted by Democrats of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 11, 2024 in Washington, DC.

House spending bill erases UNRWA, Gaza pier funding, blocks refugee resettlement

President Joe Biden has threatened to veto the House-passed State, Foreign Operations bill if it reaches his desk.

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - JUNE 25: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant walk into the Pentagon on June 25, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. Their meeting comes a day after Gallant and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sat down together to discuss Gaza and Lebanon. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Analysis

US rejects limited Israeli war in Lebanon, continues 2000-lb bomb freeze

After the statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing the Biden administration of halting arms shipments to Israel, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant went to Washington for damage control.

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

A photo taken during a tour organized by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Works and Transport shows staff loading cargo onto a plane at Beirut's international airport on June 24, 2024.

India, Jordan join chorus of countries warning against travel to Lebanon

The fighting between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel has escalated in recent days, prompting several countries to recommend against travel to Lebanon due to concerns over a war breaking out.

A large sign put up by private citizens bearing the portrait of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, with text in Arabic below reading "total allegiance", is displayed along Abo Romaneh street in the capital Damascus on May 10, 2021 ahead of the country's presidential elections. - A Syrian former minister and a member of the Damascus-tolerated opposition will face Assad in the May 26 presidential election, according to the constitutional court in Syria. The election will be the second since the start of a dec

As Assad 'welcomes' mending ties with Turkey, can Russia or Iraq mediate?

The stalled Ankara-Damascus dialogue is likely to see some fast developments, one expert says, though he warns not to expect too much thanks to complications including the upcoming US elections.

An Iranian cleric walks past a banner and posters with the image of presidential candidate, conservative Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as he walks along a street days before the national snap elections, in Tehran on June 26, 2024. Six candidates are vying in the June 28 snap elections to succeed the ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran election: With 4 candidates left, hard-liners rally behind Ghalibaf, Jalili

Hard-liner Saeed Jalili and Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian topped two recent polls, though many Iranians say they don't plan to vote amid widespread opposition to the government.

Israel Lebanon

Israel strikes Syria, hits deeper in Lebanon as Hezbollah tensions grow

Strikes believed conducted by Israel have increased inside Syria in response to repeated attacks by pro-Iranian groups against Israel since the Gaza war began.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma walk in a street of Paris on December 10, 2010. Al-Assad is on a two-days official visit to France. AFP PHOTO MIGUEL MEDINA (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)

Paris court upholds France's arrest warrant for Assad: What we know

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is wanted in France for his alleged involvement in a 2013 chemical attacks in Ghouta and Douma that left as many as 1,000 people killed.

ABDEL GHANI BASHIR/AFP via Getty Images

Iran claims Saudi Arabia won't let Iranian pilgrims vote

Iranian worshippers resumed Umrah pilgrimages to holy sites in Saudi Arabia in April after the two countries resumed relations last year.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - MARCH 29: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to supporters at his party’s Istanbul mayoral candidate Murat Kurum's campaign rally on March 29, 2024 in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkey will hold municipal elections on Sunday March 31, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party aiming to reclaim cities lost in 2019, including the country's largest city of Istanbul and the capital Ankara. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)

Turkey's Erdogan warns Israel against Lebanon war, calls Netanyahu 'mentally ill'

The Turkish president's comments have reignited the war of words between Turkey and Israel.