Orientul Mijlociu

On May 16–17, with much of the attention in Eurasia still fixated on the Russian-Ukrainian war, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, paid a visit to Tajikistan, where he met with President Emomali Rahmon and senior military officials. In the most important event of this trip, General Bagheri and his hosts inaugurated the opening of an Iranian Ababil-2 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) factory in the Tajikistani capital of Dushanbe (Tasnim News, May 17).

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is producing secondary crises. Some are well publicised, such as the threat to world food supplies because the war has prevented Ukraine exporting millions of tons of grain from its Black Sea ports. The exodus of Ukrainian refugees crammed onto trains as they sought refuge in other countries was shown on every television screen in the world.

A U.S. court has asked Lebanon’s judiciary to serve legal papers against two top Lebanese politicians seeking to compel their response to accusations they orchestrated the kidnap and torture of a Lebanese-American couple.

Elie Samaha, a U.S.-Lebanese citizen, and his wife Lara Samaha, who holds a U.S. green card, are suing the Lebanese politicians and eight others, including three family members, judges and lawyers in connection with a family dispute over land and money they claim was stolen from them.

A UN diplomat called on all countries to follow in the footsteps of Iraq and repatriate their nationals, according to North Press.

A high-level UN delegation, accompanied by the Chief of Iraq’s National Security Service, made a trip to al-Hol Camp in Hassakeh Governorate, northeastern Syria on June 5th.

International organizations that pay stipends to the displaced Syrians should stop paying them in Lebanon, according to Athr Press.

Lebanon’s foreign minister in the caretaker government, Abdullah Bou Habib, said Beirut will not cooperate with Europeans on keeping Syrian refugees in his country.

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.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, the spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, Ned Price, renewed his country’s concerns about a breach of the 2019 ceasefire agreement in northeast Syria and said that any escalation by Turkey would affect the battle against the Islamic State Organization (ISIS).

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.