Qatar is throwing its financial muscle to woo Russia in a bid to regain lost political influence in the Syrian conflict, and the broader Middle East. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani visited Russia in January to address Middle Eastern geopolitics and energy issues.
Twenty human rights organizations issued a joint statement today calling on the Iranian authorities to “stop the harassment, intimidation and prosecution of human rights defenders seeking truth and justice on behalf of individuals who were summarily executed or forcibly disappeared during the 1980s and their families,” the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), one of the signatories of the statement
The Iraqi government has approved Tehran’s controversial ambassador pick to represent the Islamic Republic in Baghdad, the Iranian media reports.
Egypt and Hamas continue to explore potential cooperation against a common threat in the Islamic State in the Sinai, as well as on the domestic Palestinian scene. Egypt’s Public Intelligence Chief, Khaled Fawzy, hosted the Vice President of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniya, and his associates Rawhi Mushtaha and Moussa Abu Marzouk for several days of consultations in late January.
This essay, which launches the MAP series on India’s relations with the Middle East (West Asia), delineates the extraordinary transformation of India’s deeply fraught relations with the region into, arguably, India’s most satisfying set of external relationships.
The Iranian media speculates that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman’s month-long tour of Asia-Pacific region is aimed at expanding Riyadh’s “anti-Iran” coalition to pressure and isolate Tehran.
Iran’s Qom News reported on Friday that Sayed Abbas Mousavi, a commander of the Zainabyoun Brigade, was kidnapped in the Iranian holy city of Qom (the site has now deleted the report).
Plainclothes agents of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) have arrested two Christian converts and transferred them to an unknown location, Mohabat News reported. The Iranian outlet, which reports on the situation of Iran’s Christian minority, added that I.R.G.C.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Eran Etzion, Gerald Feierstein, and Robert S. Ford provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including Israeli PM Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to Moscow, Saudi FM Adel al-Jubeir’s upcoming visit to Cairo, and the developing agenda for the Geneva 4 Syria peace talks.
Netanyahu to Make Another Trip to Moscow
Eran Etzion, MEI Scholar
Iran test-fired two ballistic missiles and sent fast-attack boats close to a U.S. Navy ship in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News today. The officials added that one of Iran’s ballistic missile tests was successful and it destroyed a target more than 150 miles away. According to the report, the launches of the Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missiles were the first tests of the missile in two years.
On February 27, a Saudi coalition aircraft killed a senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) officer, known only by the nom de guerre “The Afghan,” in Yemen’s northwestern region of Sa’ada, which borders the Kingdom.
Authorities in Bahrain said over the weekend that they had arrested 25 members of an Iran-backed “terror cell” involved in recent attacks on the Bahraini security forces, including a deadly jail break in January.
