Author: M Barbu

Iran May Defend Some Areas as Turkish Operation Begins in Aleppo

Iranian militias fear the start of the Turkish military operation in northern Syria, according to Baladi News.

Iranian militias fear the start of the Turkish military operation in northern Syria, due to the proximity of their areas of operation in the areas of Nubl and al-Zahraa north of Aleppo to the city of Tal Rifaat –which the Turkish army and the Syrian National Army want to control. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed this news a few days ago.

The Truth About 60,000 Russian Troops in Syria

Enab Baladi says Russia exaggerates the number of soldiers it keeps in Syria.

Speculation has swept over the past few weeks about the number of Russian soldiers present in Syria, in light of reports that Russia has reduced that number, according to what was reported by Russian media that does not reflect the official vision in Moscow.

President Assad to RT: Russia Restored Lost International Balance

President Bashar al-Assad has stressed that Russia is subjected to a war that cannot be linked to the issue of NATO expansion alone. Instead, it is a continuous war that did not stop even before communism or World War I, affirming that the strength of Russia today constitutes a restoration of the lost international balance.

Conflict Trends Update

IRAN

In a 30-2 vote (with three abstentions), the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors on Wednesday passed a resolution censuring Iran’s lack of cooperation in answering agency safeguards concerns on activities at undeclared sites.

With Lavrov in Turkey, a different war may dominate talks

When Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, in Ankara this week, Turkey’s proposal to establish a safe transport corridor for Ukrainian grain exports will be a top agenda item. If realized, the Black Sea corridor would require a naval escort, mine-clearing, and inspections to ensure that grain ships do not transport weapons—delicate tasks that necessitate a Turkish role because of the country’s geography. There is plenty at stake: The United Nations and economists are warning that continued blockage of Ukrainian grain exports could lead to famine and instability in Africa and privation elsewhere. Meanwhile, Ukraine has accused Russia of looting its grain.

As Europe withdraws from Mali, Russia gets the upper hand

When Mali’s government saw Tuareg separatists and jihadists storming from the north toward the capital Bamako in 2012, it turned to France—a former colonial power—for help. Operation Serval stopped the advance and was later transformed into a regional counterterrorism operation, dubbed Barkhane. France was gradually joined by other European countries, and the Sahel region had come to host the largest deployment of European forces abroad—with around eight thousand troops.

Allied resolve: NATO perspectives on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

The Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security is delighted to invite you to a conversation on “Allied resolve: NATO perspectives on the Russian invasion of Ukraine” with four former NATO Secretaries General on Wednesday, June 15 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EDT (16:00 to 17:00 CET) on Zoom. This edition of the Atlantic Council’s Front Page event series will feature Secretaries General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Lord George Robertson, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and Javier Solana in a discussion on how to better address the crisis.

Vietnam Modernizes Its Military With a Wary Eye on China

Ukraine’s successes in resisting and even turning back an invasion by a numerically superior Russian force has raised expectations in East Asia that smaller nations in the region could conceivably fend off an attack from a large military like China’s. Taiwan, of course, has long struggled with executing such a defense strategy, but since its strategic considerations are in many ways unique, other countries nominally threatened by China may not be able to draw as many lessons from Taipei’s experience. Ukraine’s performance in its war against Russia, on the other hand, may look to them like a more relevant model—for better or worse.