As diplomats & journalists focus on Israel’s settlement expansion in the West Bank, there’s less attention on an expansion of segregation & racialised planning in the Galilee as the Israeli government intensifies historical policy, writes Ben White.
When the forces of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an armed Islamist group which is a successor to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, rolled into Afrin in northern Syria earlier this month, the primary reaction was one of confusion.
HTS had for some time functioned as an unwilling but significant part of the uneasy administration of the country’s north – much of which is administered with the help of Turkey and its intelligence services, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
The two most powerful armed, non-regime groups in Syria have made separate proposals to resettle millions of Syrian refugees in the Middle East in their respective territories.
These proposals are not insignificant since the two groups currently hold the vast majority of Syrian territory outside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s control.
Despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad being welcomed back onto the international stage, all is not well at home.
His country is broken into three parts, which, at best, are in a state of uneasy coexistence and at worst are stuck in a low-intensity active conflict.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkey’s new Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also touched upon bilateral relations and defense cooperation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkey’s new Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also touched upon bilateral relations and defense cooperation.
President Erdogan’s new Cabinet so far reflects a shift to his reformist days — whether that plays out as such remains to be seen.
Turkey’s flailing economy topped the agenda as the country’s new Cabinet convened Tuesday under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the first time since he won a third presidential term on May 28.
As the Wagner Group prepares to withdraw its fighters from Bakhmut after months of brutal conflict, there is growing speculation that its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is angling to have his forces redeployed to fragile states in the Middle East and Africa.
Daesh on Friday claimed responsibility for an explosion inside a mosque in northern Badakhshan province the day before.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) is an “implacable” enemy of Daesh and it continues to act against the group.
Speaking in a press conference with his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh, Blinken said that the US will prevent a resurgence of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan.
The Wagner chief’s furious attack on elites and the war could portend turmoil with potential to extend well beyond Moscow.
Is the post-Putin era in Russia at hand? Probably not yet, barring an unlikely collapse of Russian forces in Ukraine. But a furious public attack on Russia’s entire war effort and its elites by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the private Russian militia group “Wagner,” is a sign that some Russian factions are beginning to position themselves for a struggle over who might succeed the Kremlin leader.