The Levant Files

Flydubai passengers returned to Israel under fighter escort on Wednesday evening after a violent cockpit incident forced their Dubai–Tel Aviv flight to land in Saudi Arabia. Hebrew media reported that some survivors initially refused to board another aircraft from the same airline, while the crisis triggered urgent talks over aviation security between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Israeli officials suspect an attempt to crash the aircraft; the motive remains under investigation. By the Editorial Team of TLF Photo: Simple Flying. Coverage checked for 16:35–20:35 Cyprus/Israel time, 30 September 2026. Earlier reporting is included where needed for context. The journey ended with relatives waiting at Ben Gurion Airport and emergency teams ready to receive passengers. According to Calcalist’s evening live coverage , the replacement aircraft landed at about 18:35, accompanied by two Israeli fighter jets during its final approach. Medical and psychological support had been a...

Fatima Zahra El Mansouri has become Morocco’s first woman prime minister, a historic appointment that gives the Arab world its second woman to lead a government after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden. By the Editorial Team of TLF Photo: Fatima Zahra El Mansouri (Numedya24) A First For Morocco King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Zahra El Mansouri as Morocco’s head of government on September 29, following parliamentary elections won by her Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM). At 50, she becomes the first woman to hold the country’s top government post. El Mansouri is a lawyer by training and a familiar figure in Moroccan public life. Before her appointment, she served as urban planning minister and mayor of Marrakech. She has also held senior roles within PAM, which had never before won a parliamentary election. In Morocco, the king appoints the head of government from the party that wins the most seats in parliamentary elections. The appointment follows that constituti...

Israel’s progressive and left-wing parties are heading into the October election more organized than they were four years ago. But unity on the ballot has not yet become a shared route to power—or a common plan for governing. By the Editorial Team of The Levant Files Israel’s left has consolidated, but the prospect of a governing alternative still hinges on coalition choices and the role of Arab parties. (Photo: [AI]) Israel votes on 27 October, with Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents facing a familiar problem: they may be able to assemble a parliamentary majority on paper, but that does not mean they agree on what to do with it. The left has taken steps to address one part of that problem. Labor and Meretz have joined forces under The Democrats , while Hadash, Ta’al and Balad have reunited on a joint electoral list. The result is a more consolidated left—and a sharper question for voters: can these forces help build a government, or will they rem...

The alarm was real. The explanation is not settled. As investigators examine a cockpit confrontation aboard a Dubai–Tel Aviv flight, a larger question hangs over the headlines: are the enemies of the United States and Israel preparing another September 11—or has the memory of that day begun to make every frightening incident look like its prelude? By The Editorial Team of TLF An aircraft at an airport, or a flight-tracking map showing the route to Tabuk. Caption: The Flydubai flight landed safely in Saudi Arabia after an emergency diversion. The cause of the cockpit incident remains under investigation. On Wednesday morning, the story seemed to race ahead of the facts. A Flydubai passenger jet bound for Tel Aviv turned away from Israel, transmitted emergency codes and descended sharply before landing in Saudi Arabia. Israeli fighter jets were scrambled. Passengers were frightened. Then came the most disturbing reports: a fight in the cockpit, a pilot ...

After two years of devastating war, Tigray is again caught between armed forces and unfinished politics. Federal troops say they are making gains; Tigrayan forces have also taken ground. Behind the rival claims lies a harder question: can Ethiopia’s leaders settle the disputes the 2022 peace deal left open before another war exacts its price from civilians? By The Levant Files Tigray Is More Than a Front Line Tigray is Ethiopia’s northernmost region, bordering Eritrea and Sudan. It is home to the Tigrayan people, who speak Tigrinya and have a distinct political and cultural history. Tigray is part of Ethiopia, not an independent state. Yet the name now carries the weight of a national political struggle. At its centre is the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political movement that once led Ethiopia’s ruling coalition and remains the most powerful political force in the region. During the 2020–22 war, its fighters and the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) fou...

Iraq will probably keep its borders. The danger is unfolding inside them, where armed factions can challenge the government, foreign powers can punish the country from above, and millions of citizens still depend on an oil-funded state that cannot fully decide when Iraq goes to war. By The Editorial Team of TLF The last American troops were due to leave Iraq on Wednesday . Iran-backed factions celebrated. In the Kurdish region, the mood was colder. The departure closes the military mission that returned in 2014, when Islamic State fighters swept through Mosul and exposed just how quickly the Iraqi state could buckle. This time, tanks are unlikely to race toward Baghdad. There may be no dramatic declaration from Erbil, no freshly drawn border across Nineveh, and no television map split into Kurdish, Sunni and Shia colors. Iraq can still come apart quietly. The country already contains several centers of force with different commanders, patrons and sources of m...

Donald Trump says the war on Iran will end "very soon." Tehran is talking about the same end point, though in a different register and on a different clock. One points to a deal after the US midterms. The other tells American voters to change the administration first. Between them sits a seven-day Iranian proposal, a blocked strait and five weeks of waiting. The Levant Files Editorial Team Trump's Deadline Keeps Moving Trump's latest promise came on 28 September. Asked when the fighting would end, he said the United States would prevail "very soon," adding, "one way or the other." He offered no date, no terms and no account of how that outcome would be reached. It was not a fresh deadline. On 9 March, he used almost the same language. On 1 April, he put the end of the war two weeks away. Earlier this month he went further, saying it would come "probably, right after the midterms." The date that now hangs over the w...

By the Editorial Team of TLF Turkish football's refereeing crisis reached the top of its administration on Tuesday, as police detained Central Refereeing Committee chairman Ferhat Gündoğdu in an investigation into alleged document forgery and mistreatment of match officials, Turkish media reported. The September 29 operation stretched across Istanbul, Ankara, Elazığ and Manisa. A statement reproduced by Nefes put the number detained at seven, including Gündoğdu, although some early reports gave a total of eight. Referees and observers were among those implicated. The allegations remain unproven. Reports describe police custody, with no confirmed court order remanding Gündoğdu in prison in the coverage reviewed for this article. Investigators examined financial intelligence from MASAK, telephone traffic records, witness accounts and expert findings. Turkish outlets described the case as the "Referees dossier", involving allegations of falsified official docu...

Washington is talking to the Houthis as fighting spreads across Yemen. The immediate goal appears to be protecting shipping. The deeper risk is that a narrow agreement could leave Yemen’s rival authorities more firmly entrenched, with no settlement for the country itself. By the Editorial Team of TLF The United States and Yemen’s Houthis have been talking. That much is no longer rumour. Vice President JD Vance acknowledged direct conversations , and Reuters reported that US officials met Houthi representatives at the American embassy in Muscat, with Oman helping to arrange the meeting. The State Department declined to confirm that particular encounter. According to Reuters’ sources, the discussion focused on preserving the US–Houthi ceasefire and keeping shipping moving through the Red Sea. Those are urgent concerns. The Houthis have advanced along Yemen’s coast, fighting with Saudi-backed forces has intensified, and the Bab al-Mandab strait has become even more expo...

By the Editor of TLF As of 29 September 2026 (Asia/Nicosia), fighting that resumed last week between Ethiopian federal forces and forces aligned with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) appears to have seriously undermined the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement. Reporting published in the last 24–48 hours points to rapidly shifting front lines, an expanding Afar dimension, communication disruptions, and increasingly international accusations. Several battlefield claims remain independently unverified because access and communications in northern Ethiopia are constrained. What Has Happened In The Latest Hours Alamata: Pro-government forces say they retook the strategically important southern Tigray town of Alamata. The town is a logistics hub near the Amhara border and has changed hands in earlier fighting. See Ethiopia's Army Chief Accuses Eritrea, Sudan And Egypt Of Supporting Tigray Rebels and Ethiopian Pro-Governm...

Renewed fighting in Baidoa is more than a local power struggle. It exposes the widening fracture between Mogadishu and Somalia's regions, consumes forces needed against al-Shabaab, and places Turkey's expanding military role under an unforgiving spotlight. The Editorial Team of TLF What Happened In Baidoa Somalia's latest outbreak of violence came on September 28 in Baidoa, the capital of South West State and one of the country's most important humanitarian centres. Forces loyal to former regional president Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen fought federal troops and fighters backing the current South West administration. Local reporting put the death toll at at least 10, with dozens wounded. Residents described explosions, sustained gunfire and fighting near major junctions before the immediate confrontation eased later that day. The figures should be treated cautiously. Somalia's wars are full of rival claims, delayed casualty reports and...

The war has upended the Gulf’s old security assumptions, forcing states to reconsider their reliance on the US and future ties with Iran. By Giorgio Cafiero · 28 September 2026 The US-Israeli war on Iran and its chaotic spillover effects across the Middle East and beyond have forced the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members to come to terms with new realities. Calculations about the Gulf’s security architecture are being reassessed, and Gulf states have been seriously questioning longstanding assumptions about the United States’ commitment to their security in the face of regional threats, chiefly from Iran, which retaliated against US and Israeli attacks by firing missiles and drones at the GCC states since the outset of this conflict on 28 February. Looking ahead, what will emerge from this conflict is unclear. There will not be imminent reconciliation between Gulf Arab monarchies and Iran. Nor will the Gulf Arab monarchies make a straightforward move away from Washington. What appe...