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

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Politics & Security

Siyamend Ali

Interview

YPG spokesman: Syrian forces' strategy is to isolate Kurdish towns and cities

In an interview with Al-Monitor, YPG spokesman Siyamend Ali said Kurdish forces were successfully repelling advances by the Syrian army, while Damascus accused the Kurds of launching unprovoked attacks.

Siyamend Ali

Siyamend Ali

YPG spokesman

The Washington Post building at One Franklin Square on June 5, 2024, in Washington.

‘Save the Post’: Washington Post journalists urge Bezos to protect foreign desk

The Post maintains one of the most extensive overseas reporting networks among US newspapers, including Middle East bureaus in Istanbul, Cairo and Dubai.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki leaves after casting his ballot at a polling station in Baghdad on Nov. 11, 2025 during Iraq's parliamentary elections.

‘Very bad choice’: Trump threatens to cut Iraq aid if Maliki returns as PM

Trump warned that the US would “no longer help Iraq” if former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki returns to power, saying his previous leadership had brought chaos and poverty.

Latest News

As phase 2 looms, Netanyahu insists no Turkish or Qatari troops in Gaza

JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Christian party in Lebanon says alliance with Hezbollah over: What to know

Lebanese MP Gebran Bassil attends the 12th parliamentary session to elect a new president in Beirut's downtown district on June 14, 2023.

Analysis

As Trump weighs Iran diplomacy, Israel uneasy but could accept deal

trump

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

What’s next for Iraq as Nouri al-Maliki gets nominated for PM?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki answers reporters' questions during a news conference with US President Barack Obama in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Dec. 12, 2011, in Washington.

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

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) greets US President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport on Oct. 18, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

Israel's Netanyahu tells US he opposes Palestinian state after Gaza war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that he will not succumb to American pressure to end the war, and that he intends to continue until all of Israel's goals are fulfilled.

GHULAM RASOOL/AFP via Getty Images

Pakistan conducts strikes inside Iran as China, Turkey call for restraint

The region is already at a boiling point as the Israel-Hamas war continues to reverberate across the Middle East, with attacks in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

The container ship, A Daisen, with the destination 'DJJIB ARMED GUARD' seen at sea on Jan. 17, 2024, in Djibouti.

Yemen's Houthis hit another US-owned cargo ship as strikes fail to deter

Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed they hit a US-owned bulk carrier with at least one naval missile in the Gulf of Aden, defying Washington and setting the stage for a prolonged tit-for-tat with the US military.

Jared Szuba

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

Pakistani and Iranian flags flutter on the closed Pakistan-Iran border in Taftan on February 25, 2020 as fears over the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus escalate following an outbreak in neighbouring Iran. - The Iranian outbreak where at least 15 people have already died -- the highest death toll in any country outside of China -- has aggravated already frayed nerves in neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Photo by Banaras KHAN / AFP) (Photo by BANARAS KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran-Pakistan tensions simmer after strikes, IRGC officer killed in southeast

Iran is seeking to contain the damage to its relationship with Pakistan following a deadly Iranian military strike in Pakistani territory targeting a dissident group.

A meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on May 7, 2023.

Alarmed over Ethiopia-Somaliland deal, Arab FMs rally behind Somalia, Egypt

Somalia denied entry to an Ethiopian flight heading to Somaliland, as a controversial deal signed between the latter and Ethiopia continues to be a source of concern in the region.

Houthi soldiers attend a military parade marking the ninth anniversary of the Houthi takeover of the capital Sanaa on Sept. 21, 2023.

US redesignates Yemen’s Houthis as terror group amid Red Sea attacks

The Biden administration stopped short of branding the Houthis with the more severe Foreign Terrorist Organization label, which aid agencies warned would hinder their life-saving work in Yemen.

ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images

West Bank violence peaks with 344 killed, nearly 6,000 arrested amid Gaza war

Hundreds have been killed in the West Bank since Israel stepped up its raids and arrests in the territory in conjunction with the war in Gaza.

FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images

Iraq, KRG leaders cancel meetings with Iran's FM at Davos over missile row

Tensions between Baghdad and Tehran have flared since the Monday attack, which Tehran claimed targeted an Israeli "spy cell" in the city.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) speaks with Foreign Affairs columnist Thomas Friedman during a meeting as part of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on January 17, 2024.

Davos 2024: Blinken says Palestinian statehood could help isolate Iran

The US secretary of state called former President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal "a big mistake."

Protesters hold a banner and Kurdish flags during a demonstration outside the United Nations (UN) office, a day after several areas in the city were hit by a missile attack launched by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region early on Jan. 16, 2024.

How Iran chose easy targets in Iraq's Erbil to avoid Israeli reprisal

As the Islamic Republic and its hardcore loyalists chanted in triumph, debates heated up as to whether the attack was meant only for domestic propaganda and flexing about a promised "revenge" that seemed to have been exacted on the wrong, easy target.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses a press conference in Tel Aviv on Jan. 9, 2024, during his week-long trip aimed at calming tensions across the Middle East.

Blinken says stay on the job as federal employees protest Gaza

The organizers behind Tuesday’s “Day of Mourning” said federal employees at more than two dozen agencies planned to take off work to protest the administration's handling of the Gaza war.

This handout screen grab captured from a video shows Yemen's Houthi fighters' takeover of the Galaxy Leader Cargo in the Red Sea coast off Hudaydah, on Nov. 20, 2023.

Davos 2024: Red Sea attacks ‘a crisis whole world needs to respond to,’ says US

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that since mid-November, 50 nations have been impacted by nearly 30 attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by the Iran-aligned Houthi militants.