For decades, the United States has operated out of bases and facilities throughout the Middle East. As security priorities have changed and relationships with host countries have evolved, so have the locations and needs of U.S. forces in the region. Over the years, some of these bases or facilities have caused controversy. Some have come under discussion as regional disputes have brought their use into question.
CAIRO — US President Donald Trump sponsored a meeting of the foreign ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia Nov. 6. The meeting was chaired by both Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and World Bank President David Malpass, and it led to the planning of four meetings to be held among the ministers of water resources of the three countries in order to conclude an agreement by Jan. 15, 2020, on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD.
The State Department is sending a top official to Israel amid a spike in violence between the country’s military and militants in the Gaza Strip. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper is traveling to Israel Tuesday and will leave Saturday, the department said in a statement.
Iraq’s ruling parties appear to have rallied behind a strategy, blessed by Iran, to try to survive a mass anti-government uprising by containing protests on the streets of Baghdad while offering a package of political reforms and elections next year. But the proposed solution involves keeping in power a ruling elite that Iran has cultivated for years — unlikely to placate protesters who have been demanding the entire caste of politicians be swept aside.
(November 12, 2019 / JNS) The Israeli missile that blasted through senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Baha Abu al-Ata’s Gaza bedroom window at 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning may have killed the man and his wife, but it also sent a broader message to Hamas and Iran. While officials insisted this was a “one-off” operation and Israel does not intend to return to a campaign of targeted assassinations, it also demonstrates