Author: M Barbu

Chaos as Iraq announces then retracts terror listing for Hezbollah and Houthis

Chaos erupted among government agencies in Iraq on Thursday after Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis appeared briefly on a list of terrorist groups facing sanctions, before it was quickly retracted.

A terrorist listing would be a surprise move against Iranian allies with connections in Iraq. The Official Gazette published on the Justice Ministry website, dated November 17, listed the two groups among organisations accused of terrorism and financing extremism.

A Year Later, Lebanon Still Won’t Stand Up to Hezbollah

Although Washington should keep pressing the Lebanese government to seize weapons and prosecute political assassins, the chances of Beirut actually confronting the militia appear increasingly slim.

Just days before the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, the government of Lebanon announced that it would provide official disability cards and full benefits to thousands of Hezbollah members injured in Israel’s now-famous September 2024 covert operation detonating pagers belonging to the Lebanese militia group. The Trump administration criticized Beirut’s decision to extend a social safety net for some Hezbollah members, and the initiative was hurriedly rolled back. But that aborted decision highlights a troubling dynamic in Lebanon more than a year after Israel smashed Hezbollah and decapitated its leadership.

Mapping the future of drug markets in West Africa – Synthetics, cocaine, criminal money, and strategic responses

The high-level dialogue “Mapping the future of drug markets in West Africa – Synthetics, cocaine, criminal money, and strategic responses”, jointly convened by the Government of Ghana, the Government of the Netherlands, and the GI-TOC, marks a critical step in bringing together key stakeholders to drive forward a more effective and cohesive response to drug markets – particularly cocaine and synthetic drugs – which represent an urgent and complex public health, security, and human rights challenge in West Africa and beyond. This dialogue, which took place in Accra, Ghana, on 27 and 28 November 2025, comes at a critical juncture: West Africa’s – and the global – marketplace for illicit drugs is changing, and there is much debate about appropriate responses.

Not Serving by Faith: How Israel is Trying to Force Ultra-Orthodox Jews to Serve in the Army Like Everyone Else

On November 19, Israel’s Supreme Court gave the government 45 days to develop effective measures to combat the evasion of military service by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 14% of Israel’s population, yet they serve almost exclusively in the army. This practice had been legal for the past 70 years. In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled it unfair, but the status quo remained in place for several more years. On November 19 of this year, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the government to develop measures to address the issue within six weeks. Following the Hamas terrorist attack and the outbreak of hostilities in Gaza, the debate over the draft of ultra-Orthodox Jews has become one of the country’s major internal conflicts. However, opponents of the draft have their own compelling arguments: the IDF has failed for many years to create suitable conditions for ultra-Orthodox service.

The State of al Qaeda and ISIS in 2025

The Salafi-jihadi threat persists across Africa, the Middle East, and into Asia. Al Qaeda– and Islamic State–affiliated groups are engaged in local conflicts and have sought ways to strengthen on the ground within popular insurgencies. Their focus on expanding in the Muslim world has not replaced aspirations to strike the West, however. Those groups that once demonstrated or sought to develop transnational attack capabilities still seek to target the United States and Europe, creating an ongoing requirement for counterterrorism activities.

ISIS Suspects Held in Syria: Repatriation Reset under New US, Syrian Leaders?

Six years after the collapse of the so-called Islamic State caliphate in March 2019, dramatic leadership changes in Washington, DC and Damascus open a rare window of opportunity to end the continuing, unlawful detentions of some 26,000 foreign ISIS suspects and family members in northeast Syria. The detainees, who come from dozens of countries, are held in camps and prisons. Most of those held in the camps are children, 40 percent of them under age 12.

The Threat of ISIS in a Fragmentated Syria

It has now been nearly three months since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) came to power in Syria. After the joy over the end of the Assad era, all eyes are on HTS to see whether they can govern in a highly fragmented Syria and prevent a potential resurgence of the Islamic State (IS). Both the US and European countries have worked together in Global Coalition against Daesh since 2014.

AKP rejects Syrian Kurdish commander’s appeal to visit Öcalan, says SDF must give up arms

A senior official from Turkey’s ruling party on Tuesday dismissed a request by the commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to visit Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, saying the group must first abandon arms and stop posing a security threat to the country.

The comments came from Ömer Çelik, spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), after Mazlum Abdi, the top commander of the SDF, said he wanted direct talks with Öcalan on the prison island of İmralı.