Executive Summary Hundreds of people have been arrested all around Iraq in an operation launched by the security forces against members of the banned Ba’ath party. The crackdown came a few days after U.S. President Barack Obama announced that U. S. forces will pull out... MORE

Mishaal Tammo the widely respected 53-year-old leader (speaker) of the Syrian “Kurdish Future Movement” and also a member of the executive committee of the recently formed, broadly-based opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) was assassinated in the city of Qamishli, in northeastern Syria’s al-Hasakah Governorate on October 7,... MORE

In Yemen’s troubled governorate of Marib, the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh generally has maintained a hands-off policy toward the region’s autonomous tribes. For decades, tribal infighting plagued Marib to a degree that Saleh himself had little reason to worry about these heavily armed... MORE

After the fall of Tripoli to fighters loyal to Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), the Syrian-based al-Rai TV station became the prime source of speeches of the toppled regime’s messages. Al-Rai aired audio messages and interviews with the ousted Libyan leader Colonel Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi and... MORE

Seeking to roll back the influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Arab world, the recent “Iran Initiative” of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is a major development in Middle Eastern power politics that will have a significant impact on the security of the... MORE

As part of the growing political process that opened up after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, there are now fourteen Islamist parties in Egypt, a dramatic change from less than a year ago, when all such parties were banned. These religious parties mushroomed... MORE

Since it began last February, the youth-led peaceful revolutionary movement in Yemen demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime has provided a political alternative to the Yemeni people which has marginalized the rhetoric of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). At the same... MORE

Influenced by the upheaval that has stricken many Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa, the people of southwest Iran’s Khuzestan Province have tried to start their own protest movement.  Khuzestan is inhabited by a majority of Arabs and is home to more... MORE

Turkey’s decision to host a NATO early warning radar in the US-led missile defense program continues to reverberate, especially for its relations with Iran. High ranking Iranian officials repeatedly criticize not only Turkey’s cooperation with the United States on the missile shield, but also Ankara’s... MORE