Desk

Middle East & North Africa

Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Iraq, the Gulf, Yemen, Egypt and Libya.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani seated in armchairs in front of the flags of Turkey and Syria

Syrian foreign minister in Ankara: Fidan and Kalın discuss SDF integration, ISIS, Israeli strikes and sanctions relief

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın in Ankara…

October 10, 2026 · 22:002 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

A UNDOF observation post with concrete trenches on Mount Bental in the Golan Heights

Greece

Golan: Greece, as Security Council president, announces the Council’s call for implementation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement

Members of the UN Security Council reaffirmed on October 9 the need to fully respect and implement the…

October 10, 2026 · 15:302 min readUpdated October 12, 2026 · 10:06

A David’s Sling interceptor missile climbing from its launcher in a plume of smoke and flame against a barren hillside

Analysis

Analysis: Achilles Shield, what capabilities Greece is buying from Israel, when it arrives and how it answers Turkey’s “Steel Dome”

Analysis: the “Achilles Shield” is Greece’s first attempt to build a single integrated air-defence network, with David’s Sling,…

October 10, 2026 · 10:0012 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

Cyprus

Cyprus and Israel back at the table over “Aphrodite”: new round of talks next week

Cyprus and Israel will hold a new round of online talks next week on the cross-border gas reservoir…

October 10, 2026 · 09:302 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 seen from below against a blue sky during take-off

Middle East & North Africa

UAE: flydubai co-pilot planned to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion airport, “drawing inspiration from 9/11”

The UAE attorney general says the co-pilot who tried to seize a flydubai Boeing on September 30 planned…

October 10, 2026 · 09:152 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

The Turkish MILGEM-class corvette TCG Heybeliada under way in the Mediterranean, seen from the deck of a US destroyer

Middle East & North Africa

Turkish defence ministry discusses measures to deploy forces to Saudi Arabia under the Mecca Alliance

At its weekly briefing on October 8, Turkey’s defence ministry said the “necessary measures” for providing and deploying…

October 10, 2026 · 04:152 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

Marco Rubio at a wooden lectern bearing the Department of State seal, with the rock of the Acropolis and its monuments behind him

Greece

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman answers Rubio’s Acropolis speech: it “deliberately omits” the other half of the Greek legacy

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei responded on X to Marco Rubio’s October 7 speech at the Pnyx…

October 10, 2026 · 03:153 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

An oil products tanker with a black and red hull and white superstructure moored alongside a refinery jetty

Middle East & North Africa

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they hit LPG tanker “NV Sunshine” south of the Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on October 9 that it had struck a large LPG tanker, the…

October 10, 2026 · 03:003 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

Ethiopian soldiers with camouflage vehicles and Ethiopian flags during an exercise in open country

Africa

Ethiopia: After Mekelle, fears grow of Eritrean and Egyptian involvement

Ethiopian federal forces took Mekelle on October 3 after more than a week of heavy fighting, but the…

October 9, 2026 · 23:103 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

Aerial view of hangars, storage yards and tents at Al Udeid Air Base in the Qatari desert

Middle East & North Africa

Senator Murphy says the Pentagon barred him from Al Udeid to hide the damage of the Iran war

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy accuses the Pentagon of a “cover-up” after he was denied access to Al Udeid…

October 9, 2026 · 22:303 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian shaking hands in front of the flag of Iran

Middle East & North Africa

Putin tells Pezeshkian Russia is ready to “do everything we can” to help end the war on Iran

Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian met in Turkmenistan on October 8, ahead of the Commonwealth of Independent States…

October 9, 2026 · 22:102 min readUpdated October 11, 2026 · 22:46

An Israeli Merkava Mk4 Barak main battle tank kicking up dust as it moves across open ground

Analysis

Analysis: Israeli Merkava Mk4 for Cyprus, how they would fare against Turkish occupation forces, and what the “no” to the Leopard 1A5 means for Greece

Analysis: The National Guard’s rejection of Greece’s Leopard 1A5 and its turn to Israeli Merkava tanks. How a…

October 9, 2026 · 18:0013 min readUpdated October 12, 2026 · 10:07