Humanitarian aid groups are often targets in politically charged areas. As pressures mount in the West Bank, they are posing a real threat to those who are trying to help – and to accountability.
The Israeli military’s designation in October of six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations has dramatically escalated the politicization of humanitarian work in the West Bank, turning their work into a battleground.
Efforts to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean have exposed a chasm between the EU’s stated humanitarian values and its actual practices. Mounting evidence of harsh abuses is increasing pressure on the EU border patrol agency to match actions to words.
For several years, Europe has been convulsed by the issue of migration, which has become a fiercely contentious subject of debate. And rather than reform its outdated and unworkable rules, which would be very politically sensitive, the European Union has outsourced migration control to countries beyond its frontiers.
The Sectarian Resurgence in the Post-American Middle East
The Biden administration’s mantra for the Middle East is simple: “end the ‘forever wars.’” The White House is preoccupied with managing the challenge posed by China and aims to disentangle the United States from the Middle East’s seemingly endless and unwinnable conflicts. But the United States’ disengagement threatens to leave a political vacuum that will be filled by sectarian rivalries, paving the way for a more violent and unstable region.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayip Erdogan offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. The senior Ria Novosti commentator Petr Akopov poured water on the idea. Ukraine has become a Western puppet and since Turkey is still a NATO member, Ankara cannot be regarded as an even-handed mediator. In words ominous for Ukraine, Akopov emphasized that Ukraine’s independence is accidental and Kiev is part of the “Russian world”. Ukraine’s existence is ephemeral, and does not resemble Turkey and Russia’s long-lasting proximity to each other. Turkey has no business projecting itself into the dispute between Russia and Ukraine in the same way that Russia would never think of injecting itself into the Kurdish question.
In reality, the Grey Wolves movement very much does exist. It has a long history of bloodbaths across Turkey and is now a growing movement across Europe as well as the South Caucasus.
This ideology [Turanism, or the Greater Turkish homeland] believes in the superiority of a supposed Turkish race and wants to unite all Turks under one country, “Turan”, from Europe to the Pacific. These ideas have greatly influenced the Grey Wolves organization and its actions.
Twenty years after being dislodged from power by a U.S. invasion, the Taliban again took charge of Afghanistan in August, prompting the U.S. and its allies to expedite their planned exit from the country. The strict Islamic fundamentalists — whose previous five-year rule was characterized by the oppression of women and minorities, and the harboring of international terrorists — pledged to do things somewhat differently this time. Those vows met with skepticism among the world’s governments and multilateral institutions, which withheld recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate authority in Afghanistan, blocked access to billions of dollars in Afghan assets held overseas and severed the development assistance that had long propped up the economy.
Armed group ISIL still poses a threat in several provinces in Iraq with hit-and-run attacks, kidnappings, and roadside bombs.
Five Peshmerga fighters were killed in an attack by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Sunday.
The attack – which also wounded four Peshmerga – took place in Diyala province on Saturday night.
Also, Al-Monitor’s on-the-ground reporting on the security situations in Syria and Iraq, including the impact of the Turkish lira crisis on Idlib.
Islamic State ‘entrenched as low-level insurgency’
The most recent report from the Pentagon’s Inspector General on Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led diplomatic and military operation against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, indicates that IS has weakened but remains a priority for US national security interests in the region.
The Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga forces suffer another attacked by Islamic State fighters.
The Islamic State (IS) attacked Kurdistan Region security forces in northern Iraq again today.
The assault occurred north of Kifri in the Diyala province. There were casualties among the Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga forces, the Erbil-based news outlet Kurdistan 24 reported.
Only the United States can play a significant role in a democratic solution to the Kurdish question, Mazloum Kobane, the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said.
Noting that the Kurdish question in Turkey impacts Syria, Kobane told the National Interest that the problems of all Kurds are “interconnected and tied to each other.’’