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Iran
The new reality in the Middle East

| Opinion
Some people believe that Tehran’s response to the Qassem Soleimani assassination resulted in an easing …
  • 6 January, 2020 | Thousands of Iranians attended a funeral procession for top military general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis in the capital Tehran on Monday. Soleimani, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds force, and al-Muhandis, the deputy leader of the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi force, were killed in a U.S. drone airstrike outside Baghdad airport on Friday. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei led the prayer for the two men at the University of Tehran, according to the official IRNA news agency. Thousands of mourners chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" as they carried banners demanding revenge for Soleimani. The corpses of Soleimani and al-Muhandis arrived in Tehran Monday dawn along with the bodies of four other people killed in the U.S. airstrike. On Saturday, thousands of mourners gathered in several Iraqi cities for a funeral procession for the two men. Soleimani's killing marked a dramatic escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have often been at a fever pitch since President Donald Trump chose in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw Washington from a nuclear pact world powers struck with Tehran. Iran's top security body has vowed "harsh retaliation" at the "right time and right place" to the general's killing. The Pentagon accused Soleimani of plotting an attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, and planning to carry out additional attacks on U.S. diplomats and service members in Iraq and the region. (AA)
    Opinion

    Since the killing of Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad last week, there have been debates, questions and concerns about the potential implications of this attack on U.S. foreign policy and the international relations of the Middle East in general. The missile attacks of Iran on a base in Iraq and the debates about a Ukrainian airlines plane presumably shot down by a missile increased the level these discussions.
  • January 10, 2020 | The Iraqi government on Friday demanded the U.S. set a mechanism to withdraw its forces from the country. This came in a phone call between caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The two officials "discussed the recent developments and desire of various parties to avoid escalation," the Iraqi government said in a statement. Abdul-Mahdi asserted Iraq's refusal to all operations that violate its sovereignty including the latest Iranian missile attack on two U.S. military bases. He also asked the U.S. to send representatives to Iraq to set the required mechanisms to apply the recent Iraqi parliament's motion, which called to expel U.S. troops from the country. The Iraqi parliament's call outraged the U.S. President Donald Trump, who refused to comply and threatened Baghdad with sanctions. Earlier Wednesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. military and coalition forces in Iraq. The missiles were launched from Iran and targeted at least two Iraqi military bases where U.S. military and coalition personnel are stationed in response to the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
    Opinion

    The targeted killing of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, an elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the deputy chief of Hashd al-Shaabi forces in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandisi, is a game-changer for Middle Eastern politics. Immediately after the attack that killed Soleimani, Iranian leadership threatened the U.S. and its allies in the region. Iran fired missiles at two American bases in Iraq in retaliation to the assassination of Soleimani. No casualties were declared in Iran's retaliatory attacks. Leaders of both countries escalated the tension, but they were careful not to let the crisis get out of control.
  • A man walks by a huge screen showing U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tokyo, Jan. 8, 2020. (AP Photo)
    Opinion

    Trump's Iran policy completely differs from the former U.S. administration's as it contains the possibility of both winning or losing in the region

Bu Konuda Daha Fazla

  • A drone photo shows thousands of Iranians attend the funeral ceremony of Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Forces, who was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike in Iraq, in Tehran, Iran on January 06, 2020.

    Since the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and senior Hashd al-Shaabi leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a U.S. strike at Baghdad airport, the power struggle between the United States and Iran in Iraq has transformed into a hot conflict. Washington's latest move has the potential to irreversibly up the ante in the long-standing hostilities between the two nations.

  • A woman sits at a bus stop in front of an anti-U.S. mural on the former U.S. embassy's wall in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 3, 2020. (Reuters Photo)

    The killing of Qasem Soleimani and his close associates in an American airstrike in Baghdad Thursday night was without question one of the most significant developments in the Middle East over the last several years – significant in terms of the profile of its target as well as the unexpectedness of such an attack.

  • World Map Design

    The year 2019, which set the stage for extraordinary developments, has now ended. Living the fast life must be the distinguishing feature of modern times. Over the last year, the world talked about Brexit, NATO's future, U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment, Israeli expansionism, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, protests in Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, France and Bolivia, trade wars, the S-400 deal, Turkey's local elections, the Syrian civil war, Operation Peace Spring, the assassination of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Aramco attacks, Turkey's new indigenous car, Kanal Istanbul, U.S. sanctions, economic recovery, the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya.

  • The White House

    There will be a lot of questions about the state of global politics in 2020. The unpredictability and uncertainty of superpower behavior and instability of the international system generate a lot of question marks about the potential developments set to take shape in the coming year. Here are some of the issues and areas that we will continue to watch during 2020.

  • Earth

    The title of my last Daily Sabah column from last year was: “Turkey in 2019: From an Emerging Economy to an Emerging Power.” The article showed how, over the course of just one year, Turkey proved that its economy was robust enough to resist the sustained economic and political attacks inflicted upon it over the last several years and that its military is strong enough to influence global multilateral platforms and sit at the negotiation table as an equal partner with some of the most influential global powers, including the United States and Russia.

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