US President Joe Biden will welcome Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi to the Oval Office on Monday, where the two leaders will discuss the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq to officially end its combat mission there.
Until relatively recently, Turkish policy meant that Muslim peoples from the USSR or the Russian Federation kept a low profile and researchers were largely blocked from studying them. But that has now changed, and this most important source for the study of the Muslims of Russia has become more accessible.
Diplomats the world over blinked in disbelief on Tuesday, July 13 when the news broke that the previous evening Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had phoned Israel’s newly elected president, Isaac Herzog, to offer his congratulations. The surprise was all the greater when it emerged that the call between the two presidents had lasted 40 minutes.
There is growing concern among the Lebanese and other Arabs that Iran is planning to exploit the severe political, economic and financial crisis in Lebanon to complete its takeover of the country.
Iran already has a political and military presence in Lebanon through its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. The current crisis, however, is likely to facilitate Iran’s mission of adding Lebanon to the list of countries it already occupies: Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and U.S. President Joe Biden are expected to announce the full withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of this year. The announcement is set to be made as Biden hosts Kadhimi at the White House today.
After the most recent Gaza war I was asked to make a presentation to a local service club concerning events in Israel and the Middle East. The presentation started with an introduction of the current global situation, a broad brush covering the U.S. empire, its petrodollar, and the new multipolar geopolitical world. From there, it covered the history that made it so, starting from events of World War I and the clash of global empires.
It’s going to be more difficult and a lot more dangerous for the Israeli Air Force to continue its frequent strikes against Iranian military assets in Syria.
The London-based Arabic language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Saturday that Russia would be providing Syria with a higher-level anti-missile defense system than is currently deployed.
The report concludes that Moscow has “run out of patience with the Israeli strikes” and expects little or no blowback from the American administration. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been Syrian President Bashar Assad’s patron during years of civil war but has maintained a level of acceptance of former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s constant attacks on Iranian arms and military equipment arriving in Syria.
More than 100 strikes are estimated to have been launched by Jerusalem over the past year. There is an apparent re-evaluation underway by Putin regarding how far he is willing to allow Israel to go in the Syrian skies since the Biden and Bennett administrations have taken over.
Syrian government artillery shells struck a village in the last rebel enclave in the country on Thursday, killing seven members of the same family, including four children, rescue workers and a war monitor said.
The shelling is part of an ongoing military escalation in the area in northwestern Syria, which had been under a cease-fire sponsored by Russia and Turkey since last year. So far it is unclear what caused the escalation, which prior to the attack had already killed at least 17 children this month, according to figures confirmed by the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.
Fresh refugee influx from Afghanistan to Turkey has stoked political and social tensions in the country where the refugee crisis is becoming more politicized.
A surge in irregular migration from Afghanistan amid withdrawal of the NATO forces from the country has reignited already high-running anti-refugee sentiment across Turkey, catching Ankara off guard as it still lacks a comprehensive and integrated border security mechanism.
Europe’s identity crisis is not confined to the ceaseless squabbles by Europeans over the EU, Brexit or football. It goes much deeper, reaching sensitive and dangerous territory, including that of culture and religion. Once more, Muslims stand at the heart of the continent’s identity debate.
Of course, anti-Muslim sentiments are rarely framed to appear anti-Muslim. While Europe’s right-wing parties remain committed to the ridiculous notion that Muslims, immigrants and refugees pose a threat to Europe’s overall security and unique secular identities, the left is not entirely immune from such chauvinistic notions.