NATO looks ready to deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries to Turkey, as dangerous signs are emerging that Syria is preparing to utilize chemical weapons. If confirmed the Patriot deployment may complicate ties between Turkey and Russia, which have already been strained by Russia’s backing of the Damascus regime and its allies against...

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Al-Qaeda was behind a planned wave of terror attacks across Amman, targeting among other sites the U.S. embassy in the Jordanian capital. The plot was broken apart last month but the news will call attention to inroads that Islamist elements have made in Jordan, a Western ally and a country...

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Instability triggered by the Syrian civil war – which is being fought as a three-way proxy war between Sunni states on one side, Iran and its proxies on another, and international Kurdish groups on a third – spilled into Israel again this weekend. Gunfire from the Syrian side of the...

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Syria: Israel conducted an air defense drill simulating a possible attack by Syrian and Iranian long-range missiles on Monday, part of a joint military drill with the United States done with an eye on terror organizations and border security threats. The drill comes as an array of destabilizing factors –...

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As its “Zero Problems” foreign policy continues to crumble, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) embarked on a series of moves this week that threatened to heighten tensions with a range of regional and global actors. Turkish officials publicly raised the prospect of deploying NATO Patriot batteries along Turkey’s southern border with Syria....

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Turkish officials are considering deploying NATO Patriot batteries along Turkey’s southern border with Syria, a critical step in establishing a no-fly zone over northern Syria that would provide protection to opposition forces seeking the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party has seen its “Zero...

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UN officials are formally condemning the incursion earlier this week of three Syrian tanks into the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates Israel and Syria. The incident – which constituted a breach of the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two countries – highlighted the degree to which the chaos of Syria’s...

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Turkish forces conducted a two-day ground operation in Iraq earlier this week, penetrating as far as 3 miles into Iraqi territory in order to target Kurdish groups. The Turkish military campaign comes as Iraq expelled Turkey’s state oil operator from an exploration contract, though analysts linked that move more to...

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Warning signs that the Syrian civil war may spill into Israel sharpened further Monday night as cross-border gunfire struck a routine Israeli army patrol on the Golan Heights. The worrying incident follows another from Saturday, in which three Syrian tanks entered a demilitarized zone (DMZ) between Israel and Syria, marking...

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As the dimensions of Syria’s proxy war expanded over the weekend, so did its potential to spiral into a full-blown regional conflict, with Syrian tanks entering the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights that separates Syria from Israel. The tanks reportedly fired at Syrian rebels living in the Syrian village...

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