At least nine people are dead and over 50 wounded after clashes broke out between the Iraqi Army and protesters near a checkpoint in Fallujah, Anbar province. The altercation is the first deadly occurrence in more than a month ...

The Iraqi government has released over 300 prisoners arrested for violations of an anti-terror law. Protests erupted three weeks ago when Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi's bodyguards were arrested under this law. Demonstrators have claimed that the law ...

Iraq closed the only checkpoint linking it with Jordan on Wednesday as Sunnis in Anbar province continued to protest against Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his government. The protests, which claim that the government is treating Sunnis unfairly, have blocked the ...

Photo Credit: AP In continuing political turmoil facing Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government, Sunni and Kurdish ministers boycotted a cabinet meeting Tuesday in support of protesters in Sunni-dominated provinces.  The boycott comes at a time of heightened ...

Protests intensified in Iraq on Monday as thousands of new protesters joined demonstrations in Sunni strongholds across the country. At least 5,000 Iraqis joined the ongoing demonstrations in Anbar province, while in Mosul, Iraqi troops fired into the air ...

For nearly two weeks, Iraqi Sunnis have protested the government in cities across the country. The demonstrations were sparked following the December 20 arrest of ten bodyguards assigned to finance minister, Rafi al-Issawi, one of the government's most senior ...

Following a stroke last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s questionable health led to uncertainty about Iraq’s future. Peter Galbraith addressed these concerns in an opinion piece in Foreign Policy, noting that Iraq currently lacks a successor that could wield ...

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed earlier this week, “Anyone who thinks that the armed opposition is capable of the military battle is very mistaken,’” referring to the conflict in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin on the ...

To mark the 2nd anniversary of the Arab Spring, the Woodrow Wilson Center released a report, titled "Has the Arab Spring Lived up to Expectations?" The report features opinions from 39 experts from the Middle East, North Africa, ...

Leaders in Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government continued to trade jabs last week over the presence of Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi Tigris Operations Force in disputed territories. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said "the visit of the President of ...

On December 11, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the U.S. now officially recognizes the Syrian Opposition Coalition as “the legitimate representative of the Syrian people." Deputy Secretary of State William Burns restated the position while attending the “Friends of ...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the Iraqi central government and Kurdish leaders had come to a preliminary agreement regarding authority in the disputed areas of northern Iraq.  He indicated that security units will be formed from local ethnic and sectarian groups ...

On November 18, 200 regional politicians as well representatives from Russia and China held a “Syrian National Dialogue” conference in Tehran to discuss an end to violence in Syria. Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, warned that arming the ...

Syrian opposition leaders will be meeting in Qatar next week to revamp the structure of the Syrian National Council (SNC). The meeting will focus on the election of new leaders and ensuring the body is more representative of minority opposition ...

At least 43 Iraqis were killed over the weekend in a slew of bombings across the country, a sign of the continuing sectarian tensions that have also paralyzed Iraq's political system. The Islamic State of Iraq, an ...

Last night's foreign policy debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney focused on numerous Middle East foreign policy issues, including Libya, Syria, Israel, Iran, and the U.S. approach to the Arab Spring. Both contenders agreed ...

Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, said he hoped to implement a recruitment drive aimed at adding women to the force. The religious police, known as the ...

United States Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew J. Shapiro met with senior officials in Baghdad, highlighting the "ongoing commitment to developing a long-term cooperative bilateral security relationship through training and defense trade." The meeting came ...