Author: M Barbu

After collapse of Lebanon maritime deal, Israel fears Hezbollah attack

Pressured by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, and concerned over Hezbollah attacking, Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced Israel will not negotiate its maritime border with Lebanon under threats.

Within less than a week, the optimism that had swept through Jerusalem, Beirut and Washington regarding prospects for completing a deal on the Israeli-Lebanese maritime border has turned into discouraging pessimism. On Oct. 6, Defense Minister Benny Gantz instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to prepare for escalation along Israel’s northern borders, including “defense and offense readiness.”

Turkey Briefing

John Le Carré, a legendary author of espionage novels, described Lesbos as “a Greek island in the Aegean wholly surrounded by monstrous memories” in his bestselling thriller “A Perfect Spy.” The line between fiction and truth becomes murkier as tensions between Turkey and Greece over Lesbos, Samos, other Greek islands and other issues show no sign of abating and are likely to escalate.

Open Balkan 2022: A Crisis Response Tool – Analysis

From 1 September to 2 September 2022, a summit of the Open Balkan initiative, which is a joint project of Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania based on the idea of free flow of people, goods, capital and services, was organized in Belgrade. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and North Macedonia Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski participated at the summit of the leaders of the Open Balkan regional initiative. The political leaders primarily came together to consider the future and look for optimal solutions for the complex situation in which the Western Balkans region is currently embroiled.

Germany Repatriates 12 Citizens From Syrian Jihadist Camp

Germany on Wednesday said it had resolved “almost all known cases” of its citizens stuck in Syrian jihadist camps, after announcing the repatriation of 12 people.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock released a statement announcing that seven children and four women returned to Germany on Wednesday night from the Roj camp in northeastern Syria.

Moroccan, Spanish Police Raid ‘Jihadists,’ Arrest 11

Moroccan and Spanish police have dismantled a jihadist cell suspected of links to the Islamic State group, officials said Tuesday.

The operation led to the arrest of 11 people in raids on Tuesday morning: nine in the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Morocco’s northern coast, and another two in the nearby town of Nador, according to a Moroccan police statement.

How to Trump-Proof the Transatlantic Alliance

First, Europe Must Realize That He Might Return

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caught Europe by surprise. Although U.S. intelligence services predicted the Russian offensive almost to the day, few European leaders took heed of their warnings, instead choosing to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin would use nonmilitary means to destabilize Ukraine. Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was among the European leaders who sleepwalked into the crisis. Like much of German society, his administration was completely unprepared for a major war in Europe. For too long, the German government had clung to old certainties: that close energy ties with Russia fostered stability, that trade promoted political change, and that dialogue with Moscow was valuable in and of itself. The awakening was brutal. Overnight, all these cherished assumptions were shattered.

Putin’s Apocalyptic End Game in Ukraine

Annexation and Mobilization Make Nuclear War More Likely

On September 30, following a series of sham referendums held in occupied territory in Ukraine, the Russian government declared that four Ukrainian regions were now officially part of Russia. The annexation came amid a “partial” Russian mobilization that is in fact rapidly becoming a large-scale one and that has left many Russians aghast and anxious. With these moves, the war in Ukraine has entered a new stage in which the stakes have risen drastically.

Libya PM defends undersea gas deal with Turkey

Libya’s Tripoli-based prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah has defended a deal signed earlier this week with Turkey over oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, which angered European nations.

The memorandum of understanding, three years after a controversial maritime border deal, sparked a sharp reaction from Greece as well as from Dbeibah’s rivals in Libya, where two administrations are grappling for power.