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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 Sudanese girl who have fled from the war in Sudan with her family carry a box with some of her belongings after arriving at a Transit Centre for refugees in Renk, on February 13, 2024.More than 550,000 people have now fled from the war in Sudan to South Sudan since the conflict exploded in April 2023, according to the United Nations. South Sudan, that has itself recently come out of decades of war, was facing a dire humanitarian situation before the war in Sudan erupted and it is feared to not have the re

Sudan war death toll over 40,000 as 2 million face imminent starvation

New figures on Sudan’s crisis show conditions deteriorating as fighting expands in scope between warring generals.

A man gestures as he holds up a small election flag during a campaign rally for reformist candidate Massoud Pezeshkian at Afrasiabi Stadium in Tehran on June 23, 2024 ahead of the upcoming Iranian presidential election. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Does China have favorite in Iran's presidential election?

The question of whether Iran's next president will maintain the country's current anti-West, anti-US position while pursuing improved relations with Beijing is foremost in China's mind.

Pictured are participants of the 19th Asia Cooperation Dialogue Ministerial Meeting held June 24, 2024, in Tehran.

US cautious on Iran’s Bahrain frozen funds claims, warns of sanctions

The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Monday that officials from Iran's and Bahrain’s central banks held a meeting on Sunday to discuss the release of Iran's “foreign exchange resources in Bahrain.”

An Iranian woman without wearing mandatory headscarves walks past electoral posters in Tehran, Iran, on June 20, 2024. Iran is holding snap presidential elections to choose the next president after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. People in Iran are increasingly showing less interest in casting their vote in the snap presidential election scheduled on June 28 after the disqualification of several candidates by the country's religious Guardian Council. Voter turnouts have hit historically lo

Iran’s Reformist, hard-liner candidates clash over foreign policy in last debate

Masoud Pezeshkian fiercely attacked his hard-line rivals in an intense live debate over their support behind the takeovers of the Saudi and British embassies and their sabotage against the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Radical Palestinian group, Hamas chief, Khaled Meshaal (2nd R) introduces his deputy Moussa Abu Marzouk (L) to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Hamas official in Russia, talks hostages, seeks Moscow mediation in cease-fire

Russia is seeking the release of two of its citizens who are still being held in Gaza. The country hosted Palestinian reconciliation talks earlier this year.

View taken on April 15, 2009 shows Turkey's Dogu Kapi border gate to Armenia, in Kars, Akyaka province on April 15, 2009. Dogu Kapi border gate closed by Turkey during the Azerbaijan and Armenia war in 1993. AFP PHOTO / MUSTAFA OZER (Photo credit should read MUSTAFA OZER/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkey’s Fidan, Armenia’s Mirzoyan hold call as normalization momentum grows

The phone call between the two top diplomats comes amid increasing diplomatic traffic between Ankara and Yerevan.

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud meets Zhang Youxia.

Saudi defense chief in China in bid for help with Houthis, boost military ties

China was a major participant in the World Defense Show in Riyadh earlier this year, and Saudi Arabia signed $4 billion in arms deals with the People’s Republic in 2022.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stand during an honor cordon at the Pentagon on June 25, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia.

Pentagon hosts Gallant as US seeks to avert Israel-Hezbollah war

Washington's defense chief is warning of "terrible consequences for the Middle East" as Israel and Hezbollah inch toward all-out war, but Israel's defense minister is making no commitments.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

US sanctions 'shadow banking network' used by Iran's military

The sweeping new sanctions come days before Iran holds elections to replace its late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month.

CORRECTION / Smoke billows during Israeli bombardment on the village of Khiam in south Lebanon near the border with Israel on June 19, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by RABIH DAHER / AFP) / "The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by RABIH DAHER has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [June 19] instead of [June 8]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your onlin

Analysis

Hezbollah, Israel not seeking full-blown war but risk of miscalculation at peak

While neither Israel nor Hezbollah is interested in war, its prospects seem higher than ever before.

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

OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey: UK issues sex-crime warning for travelers, reports 42 cases in 2023

British nationals were the third-largest group of tourists who visited Turkey last year.

Israeli police disperse Ultra-Orthodox Jews blocking a highway during a protest against possible changes regarding the laws on the military draft from which the Ultra-Orthodox community has traditionally been exempt, in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak, on June 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

What Israel's Supreme Court ruling to draft ultra-Orthodox means for Netanyahu

Israel's Supreme Court ruled unanimously that there is no justification for the state to exempt young ultra-Orthodox men from military service.