Crisis Group’s work preventing conflict and shaping peace has a positive influence on crises around the globe. This Impact Note highlights cases in Afghanistan, Colombia, Ethiopia, Mali, Nagorno-Karabakh, the U.S. and Yemen, as well as our advocacy at the EU and UN and our research on climate and conflict in Africa.
Young Palestinians have formed new armed groups across the West Bank. Small, disjointed and scattered, they lack a clear political agenda. But both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have found reason to exaggerate the threat they pose to the status quo.
SDF Commander tells Asharq Al-Awsat he won’t visit Damascus before conditions for political solution are available.
Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi said the American administration of former President Donald Trump “betrayed” its allies in the SDF when it did not oppose the Turkish infiltration in Syria in late 2019. In an interview to Asharq Al-Awsat, he revealed that the current administration has prevented Türkiye from carrying out a new operation in Syria.
It has been a little over four years since experts in March 2019 declared the terrorist group ISIS territorially defeated, with Kurdish forces taking its last pocket of land in the village of Baghouz, eastern Syria.
This report is the third in a series about the 19th-century antisemitic libel The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and its dissemination, circulation, and use, in Urdu, Turkish, Farsi, and Arabic.
“Qatargate” Background
Since the scandal related to allegations of bribery and corruption among a group of MEPs in Brussels broke out four months ago, European media zeroed in on a relatively small cast of ringleaders and the NGOs surrounding them. Much of the media investigation has focused on human rights NGOs and the misuse of nepotistic political influence among the core group of politicos and their assorted aides and associates on key issues ranging from human rights to airway deals to cryptocurrency and tech innovation. The rumor mill is swirling round and round. The dubious deals with Qatar Airlines were recommended by the European Commission – the real power in the EU – despite the scandal of a key European stakeholder receiving free trips during the negotiations. The inconclusive debate over transparency rules and anti-corruption measures continues, but many argue such changes would unlikely to curtail the impact of lobbying by foreign powers.
For the first time in twenty years, a change of leadership in Turkey is possible. The EU must be prepared for the foreign policy shift an opposition victory would bring.
Whether in the first round on May 14 or the second on May 28, Turkey’s presidential election will ultimately be fought between the incumbent president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
As Russian troops continue their assault on Ukraine, Western countries persist in invoking international law, imposing crippling sanctions against Russian leaders and entities while publicly supporting Ukrainian armed resistance and opening their borders with open arms to refugees. However, we see such support utterly absent for people enduring Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as its blockade of Gaza. Why is there such blatant double standards in the mainstream support for people resisting apartheid colonial oppression and ongoing aggression? It’s very frustrating and infuriating for Palestinians as they have been constantly criminalized and told that they don’t have the right to resist and labelled as both terrorists and anti-semitic whenever they ask for their rights. Undoubtedly, it is such a glaring contradiction to many observers when evaluating these sorts of hypocrisies and double standards. Israeli occupation amounts to ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination as recognized by human rights organizations. In addition to attacks on religious sanctity and complete lack of respect for international law, we find no one holding Israel responsible for behaving as a state above the law.
The Biden Administration has created a vacuum of leadership on the global stage.
If the US further pulls out of Asia, the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, Ukraine, Latin America — anywhere — the vacuum created will surely be filled by the new axis of China-Russia-Iran. A US pull-out is, most probably, just what they are hoping and waiting for.
Summary:
By declaring the end of SykesPicot, the Islamic State was positioning itself as a force that was reuniting the region under the banner of Islam—symbolism that could resonate with many across the Arab world.