Iranian leaders are considering the possibility of offering concessions while simultaneously escalating their crackdown against protesters in an effort to quell the three-month-old uprising.
Hardliners in the regime believe that executing protesters will cause the woman-led unrest to subside.
Regime moderates have criticized the executions and seek to end enforcement of some of the restrictions that triggered the uprising.
The most defining feature of international terrorism in 2023 will be its diversity, reflected by the broad array of ideologies and grievances motivating plots and attacks. The Islamic State, the most significant terrorist threat since the global counterterrorism campaign to dismantle al-Qaeda in the immediate years following 9/11, has been attenuated in Iraq and Syria, losing two of its emirs in 2022. Outside of the Levant, Islamic State branches and affiliates remain potent, especially in the Sahel region of Africa and in South Asia, where the Islamic State Khorasan Province is waging a stubborn insurgency against the Taliban. The Islamic State Khorasan Province has launched high-profile attacks against both Russian and Chinese interests in Afghanistan. Still, Western counterterrorism successes may not be sustainable without a robust commitment to continue working with partners on the ground to ensure that these groups do not reconstitute. Without continued US and allied pressure, it is likely that Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and their respective branches and franchise groups could successfully rebuild their networks in the Middle East and beyond.
It was a $41 million government payout to a company co-owned by a fitness trainer and a basketball team executive to repair part of Ukraine’s lifeline in its nearly yearlong struggle against Russia’s invasion: public roads in the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk. And it made up part of Kyiv’s highest such payout for all of war-torn Ukraine — to a region estimated to have suffered comparatively minimal damage.
After a bloody war that saw hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced over a decade, Syria has been effectively divided into spheres of influence and de facto protectorates controlled by regional and international powers. Foremost among these has been Iran, which has come to exert huge influence not only over the Assad regime but also within Syrian society as a whole through a systematic Shiification strategy that has changed the country’s sociocultural character—a risky game in a region long afflicted by sectarian, religious, and ethnic conflicts.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday announced the arrest of several Islamic State (ISIS) suspects during a recently-launched operation against the group in northeast Syria (Rojava).
The SDF on Thursday announced a new anti-ISIS mission dubbed Operation al-Jazeera Thunderbolt, targeting the terror group’s hotspots in northeast Syria’s al-Hol and Tal Hamis. The force later expanded the campaign to Syria-Iraq borders.
Turkey’s security establishment remains immutably opposed to the consolidation of any form of Kurdish autonomy in Syria that would mirror Kurdish gains in neighboring Iraq.
Turkey’s overtures to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with last week’s meeting in Moscow between the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers, continue to resonate. Unsurprisingly, one of the most realistic assessments came from the one group that understands Turkish thinking best: the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Katehon think tank
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine. The objectives of the Special Military Operation were the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, the elimination of the military threat coming from the Kiev regime to the Donbass republics (DPR and LPR). The conflict immediately took on a global character: NATO and EU countries, led by the United States, as well as New Zealand and Australia began providing military support to Ukraine, setting as their goal the military defeat of Russia. Sanctions were imposed against Moscow, its gold and foreign exchange reserves frozen, and Western business began to leave Russia. The Special Military Operation became a challenge for Russia itself, both militarily and politically, ideologically and economically.
The Cradle has previously deconstructed the Pentagon’s online bot and troll operations targeting Iran. These wide-ranging efforts, over many years, sought to destabilize the Iranian government by disseminating and inciting negative sentiment against it, on a variety of social media platforms.
Following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban-led schismatic government in Kabul appears to have reached a diplomatic impasse. It seems like its neighbors, who had previously been eager to restore normalcy to the turbulent region, have given up on the Islamic Emirate.
Local sources confirmed that there were likely casualties among US forces, as the missiles reportedly struck the facility’s housing section
Washington’s military base in the occupied Al-Omar oilfield in Syria’s eastern governorate of Deir Ezzor, came under intense rocket fire late on 30 December in what has been described as the largest attack “of its kind,” with media suggesting the likelihood of US military casualties.