As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan watches Russian forces flounder in Ukraine, he may be rethinking his own ambitions — or concluding that Turkey is in a better spot than ever.
Turkey’s diplomatic isolation was the focus of excited punditry in recent years. But today, Ankara is running out of red carpet as a deluge of foreign dignitaries knock at its door.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a March 10, 2022 public address which aired on Channel 1 (Iran) that making concessions to the U.S. and other super powers would have put Iran in “great danger.” He explained that it is “naive and amateurish” to say that Iran should reduce its “defensive force” and its “foreign defense capabilities,” and he emphasized that Iran’s strategic “depth” is a result of its regional involvement. In addition, he said that the nuclear issue is about Iran’s scientific progress and its future technology.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is visiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday as part of his efforts to press for increased oil production from the Gulf states to reduce dependence on Russian energy.
Senior bureaucrats believe Erdogan will “wipe the opposition off the table” in next year’s elections, excelling as he does in every major crisis.
With Turkey facing a major economic crisis and presidential elections scheduled for June 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a host of challenges. Yet the Turkish leader is a master of crisis management, and even the Russian invasion of Ukraine could provide unique opportunities.
A new nuclear deal will create a “sanctions evasion hub for Vladimir Putin based in Iran,” according to a new policy brief circulating around Capitol Hill and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
With a nuclear deal likely to be announced in the coming days, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a think tank critical of the agreement, says a new deal will allow Putin to circumvent tough Western sanctions that have been put in place since Russia invaded Ukraine.
It is now unclear whether Turkey will buy Russian weapons in the future, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday.
“Of course, there are weapon systems that we bought. Under the current circumstances, it is unclear what will happen in the future,” Erdogan said when asked by a journalist how long Turkey would continue to buy weapons from Russia.
The new leader of Islamic State, whose appointment the group announced on Thursday, is the brother of slain former caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to two Iraqi security officials and one Western security source.
Islamic State named its new leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi in a recorded audio message distributed online.
The announcement came weeks after the death last month of Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi, the man who in turn succeeded Baghdadi in 2019 and became the group’s second so-called caliph. Both Baghdadi and Quraishi died by blowing themselves and family members up during U.S. raids on their hideouts in northern Syria.
Four days into the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine on February 27, 2022, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu declared that the operation in question was a “war.” He explained to CNN Türk, “Under these conditions, we will apply the Montreux agreement. Article 19 is pretty clear. In the beginning, it was a Russian attack and we evaluated it with experts, soldiers, and lawyers. Now it has turned into a war. This is not a military operation; it is officially a state of war.” The Turkish government has also sought to use the convention to de-escalate tensions in the Black Sea and, more broadly, has cautioned all countries not to send any warships into the Black Sea—perhaps to limit the possibility of Western maritime escalation.
The following post is my translation of the audio message “And among them are those who have fulfilled and died,” released today by the Islamic State’s al-Furqan Media, featuring a speech by the group’s new spokesman ‘Abu Omar al-Muhajir,’ who confirms not only the death of the previous leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi but also the death of the previous spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qurashi. In a speech that very much recalls 2019, he adds that the Majlis Shura did not delay to implement Abu Ibrahim’s counsel and appoint a new leader as caliph: Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (whose name circulated among some Islamic State supporters in the aftermath of Abu Ibrahim’s death). He urges the Muslims and mujahideen to pledge allegiance to the new caliph.
The White House has reportedly failed in its attempt to arrange calls between US President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Wall Street Journal reported.