In-depth analysis and editorials on Qatar diplomacy, Gulf geopolitics, and Middle East affairs
Iran's deputy communications minister warned that Starlink could be the "final nail in the coffin" of state control over the internet, saying the next crisis may force authorities to cut electricity instead.
Turkey has banned trade with Israel since May 2024. A new shipping-data report finds that Azerbaijani crude kept sailing from a Turkish terminal to an Israeli port.
When the Iran war rattled emerging markets in March, Turkey's central bank did what it has done in nearly every currency crisis since 2018: it opened the vault. New reporting on the scale of that intervention — and on how Ankara clawed its way back to "record" reserves within mon
It was the holy month of Ramadan, a little after 8 p
Somalia, a country on the Horn of Africa still fighting a decades-long war against the al-Shabaab insurgency, has spent the past decade building its federal military almost entirely around a single foreign patron: Türkiye
A Wall Street Journal article published this week carries the headline "Washington's Deadly New Headache: an al Qaeda-Houthi Terrorist Alliance
Turkey isn't just getting a favorable oil contract in Somalia. It is assembling oil, fisheries, maritime-security and military leverage inside a fragile state at the same time.
<p>Iran's Oil Minister <strong>Mohsen Paknejad</strong> announced on state television Sunday the discovery of a major new natural gas field in the south of <strong>Fars province</strong>, saying the find holds more than <strong>7
The UAE has co-signed a joint statement with seven other governments condemning Israel's advancement of the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, calling for international sanctions against those responsible for it
A member of Somalia's House of the People is publicly demanding that Canadian authorities investigate the funding, sponsorship and true purpose of Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre's reported visit to Canada on Friday
Puntland's seizure of a Galkayo military camp is tied to Mogadishu's expired mandate and a security force neither government will claim as its own.
Al-Shabaab militants seized control of Teedaan, a strategic town in Somalia's central Hiiraan region, on Sunday after two days of intense fighting, forcing Somali government forces and allied Macawisley clan militias to withdraw, security sources said
The Australian Embassy in Doha closed its public-facing offices to walk-in visitors in early July 2026, citing escalating regional security concerns after fresh security threats and reports of missile interceptions in the region
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Emir of Qatar who ruled the country from 1995 to 2013, has died at the age of 74, Qatari government announcements confirmed on Sunday, July 12, 2026
Iran and Qatar have resumed maritime trade after a suspension of roughly five months, Iran's commercial attaché in Doha, Abbas Abdolkhani, said on Sunday, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA
Qatar has been ranked the most economically resilient country in the Middle East, even as forecasts point to a sharp contraction in the value of its output
Qatar has been ranked the most peaceful country in the Middle East and North Africa in the 2026 Global Peace Index, the annual assessment published by the Institute for Economics and Peace
Somaliland's president opened an embassy in Jerusalem and signed a strategic partnership with Israel this week, six months after Israel became the first state to recognise the breakaway republic — even as reports of a possible Israeli base near Berbera, denied by Hargeisa, stir Red Sea tensions.
Qatar's role as financial guarantor for Iran centers on roughly $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue that Doha agreed to hold and oversee, the arrangement that underpinned the September 2023 prisoner exchange in which Tehran released five detained Americans
A Human Rights Watch investigation traces a recruitment pipeline from Bogotá through Abu Dhabi military bases to Darfur — and silence from the capitals that already know.
Captain Boualem Khoukhi's stoppage-time header earns Qatar a 1-1 draw with Switzerland — and the first point in the nation's World Cup history.
A new global monitor finds Israeli armed forces were responsible for more than 55 percent of all civilian deaths from explosive weapons in 2025 — the third straight year above half. The report stresses its figures are minimums, likely an undercount of the real toll.
Three months into the Gulf's worst crisis in decades, the cost of a closed Strait of Hormuz can now be counted
US President Donald Trump has dismissed the prospect of a military clash between Israel and Turkey, casting his personal rapport with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as enough to keep two of Washington's allies from coming to blows
On 9 June 2026, Qatar's Ministry of Defence widened eligibility for the National Service Programme to two groups previously kept out: children of Qatari mothers, and non-Qatari residents born in Qatar
Qatar's decision to open its National Service Program to children of Qatari mothers and to non-Qatari residents born in the country is, on its face, an administrative tweak
Qatar's Ministry of Defence has expanded eligibility for the country's National Service Program to include children of Qatari mothers and non-Qatari residents born in Qatar, a significant shift from rules that previously restricted enlistment largely to those with Qatari fathers
Pakistan used a UN Security Council session on Iran on 9 June to place itself at the centre of the most consequential diplomatic opening between Washington and Tehran in a generation — and to name Qatar among the partners that made it possible
From Israel's recognition of Somaliland to Gulf port deals in breakaway regions, outside powers are entrenching Somalia's divisions. Qatar's message is the opposite: Somalis should settle their own affairs, free of foreign interference.
Doha is counting down to a World Cup that will feel very different from the last one