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.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is tightening the noose on the jihadi Jundallah group and asking it to join it or leave Idlib, in what observers described as an attempt on the part of HTS to get rid of non-Syrian fighters.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which controls Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, has recently worked to attract jihadi groups acting outside the limits of its authority by placing pressure on them and offering them as few as two options: either join the organization and act under its authority or dissolve themselves and leave Idlib.
As Turkey marks the fifth anniversary of the July 15, 2016, failed coup attempt, the putsch has served as a founding myth for Erdogan’s “New Turkey.”
Some dates serve as milestones. For Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, July 15 is one of them. The failed coup attempt to remove Erdogan on July 15, 2016, has become the founding myth of “New Turkey” in his historiography.
After the Second Karabakh War, the tripartite ceasefire agreement on November 10, 2020, opens a possibility for Iran to become connected to the southern railway network in the South Caucasus. As a result of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, an important part of the South Caucasus Railway, which passed through the Nakhichevan region, Syunik Province in southern Armenia, and Jabrail, Fizuli and Zangilan regions in southern Azerbaijan, was destroyed or removed from communication routes. As a result, unlike Turkey and Russia, Iran has no rail connection to the Caucasus.