On the morning of Tuesday, December 20, fighter jets fired missiles at and around Damascus airport, destroying several weapons storage facilities and other infrastructure belonging to Iran’s local proxies. According to Al Arabiya TV, an anti-aircraft battery positioned near the airport was also struck, shortly after an Iranian plane had landed. The Syrian authorities hold the Israel Defense Forces responsible for the attack.
The Syrian lira is facing turmoil in the foreign exchange market, with the Syrian Central Bank unable to support the currency because of a significant deterioration in its reserves. There are undoubtedly many economic and political reasons for the decline in the bank’s role. Specifically, however, the end of financial support from Iran has put the bank in a state of paralysis.
Suffering from geopolitical and energy crises, the European economy in 2022 had a hard time when it faced the triple predicaments of high inflation, energy crisis, and economic slowdown. Looking forward to 2023, as the European Central Bank (ECB) continues to push for interest rate hikes, which in turn may cause the European economy to face a long period of difficulty. According to the researchers at ANBOUND, it remains challenging for Europe to resolve the inflation problem, and there is more likelihood for it to fall into stagflation.
Bosnia’s ten-party state-level coalition government lost two member parties on Thursday, only 20 days after it was formed in mid-December.
The Party for BiH and People’s European Alliance, NES, both from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the larger of Bosnia’s two entities, quit the coalition demanding retraction of a new law on state property adopted by the assembly of Republika Srpska, the country’s other entity, on December 28.
L’an passé, 951 militaires allemands ont fait la demande de ne pas être déployés en zone de conflit. C’est près de cinq fois plus qu’en 2021. Les pacifistes allemands appellent l’armée à offrir une porte de sortie à tous les objecteurs de conscience.
Turkey told the opposition its meetings with the Syrian regime did not address the issue of Idleb, according to Baladi News.
The head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission, Badr Jamous, said on Tuesday that the Syrian opposition delegation requested a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu because of “blaming the Syrians”. He stressed that the Syrian opposition did not meet with regime officials outside the framework of Astana and Geneva.
The fourth division is feuding with the PKK over the quantities of fuel that reach Aleppo, according to Shaam Network.
Kurdish media have highlighted the situation of civilians in the Al-Shahba area north of Aleppo and the neighbourhoods of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo, which are under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Media outlets focused on these areas due to the harsh siege conditions imposed by the regime’s Fourth Division. The siege comes against the backdrop of disputes with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over the trade of fuel and other commercial commodities.
Олег Нестеренко
Представителям западного сообщества довольно удобно сплотиться вокруг нарративов НАТО о причинах вооруженного конфликта в Украине и не ставить себя в положение дискомфорта сомнений и проверки постулатов, доминирующих общественное мнение.
Chadian security agencies have foiled a plot by a group of army officers to “destabilize” the country and undermine constitutional order, the government said in a statement on Thursday.
A “restricted group of conspirators” comprising 11 officers led by the head of the Chadian Organization of Human Rights, Baradine Berdei Targuio, were behind the alleged plot, the statement asserted.
As Islamabad increasingly voices concern about the alleged sheltering of a Pakistani insurgent group in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, there is speculation whether the Pakistani military might strike targets in the neighboring country and how that would impact the region’s fragile security.