The Erdogan regime is further shaking up the East Mediterranean geopolitical and energy landscape
Turkey has announced plans to explore a slice of the Mediterranean claimed last year by the Tripoli-based Libyan government, following an air offensive that has pushed the rival forces of warlord Khalifa Haftar out of western Libya.
New U.S. sanctions targeting the Syrian government appear to also undermine Hezbollah in Lebanon. Experts say the measures are alienating Hezbollah from its political allies in Lebanon and weakening its usage of state institutions to assist the Syrian regime.
Islamist ‘stokes hate against Israel and West’ at Hezbollah center, says intel.
A Hezbollah-controlled community center in the northern German city of Bremen funnels money to the Lebanese-based terrorist movement Hezbollah, The Jerusalem Post can report on Friday.
Total of 2,500 Tunisian ISIS members sent to the North African country, according to watch group.
Turkey has openly admitted that its secret service MIT is taking ISIS members out of the Hol Camp in northeast Syria.
Rarely do terms such as “Islamic State” and “natural justice” keep company. Both seem alien, uncomfortable, fundamentally ill-suited. For one, Islamic State’s own approach to natural justice, archaic and stone-age obscurantist, has tended to be distinctly unnatural and particularly brutal. But it has also invited, in response to its particular brand of terrorism, a troubling approach on the part of governments determined to excoriate it. For those taking to its sources of fanaticism, harsh measures are meted out.
Bulgarian authorities accuse Mohammed Abdulqader of fighting in Syria based on photos. His family says he is innocent.
A man who left London to join the Islamic State group in Syria has died while being held in prison in the country, the BBC has been told.
https://www.menatransitionfund.org/overview
In May 2011, the G8 launched the Deauville Partnership as a response to the historical changes underway in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. The Deauville Partnership was launched as a long-term, global initiative that provides Arab countries in transition with a framework based on technical support to: (i) strengthen governance for transparent, accountable governments; and (ii) provide an economic framework for sustainable and inclusive growth.
To support the countries in transition to formulate policies and programs and implement reforms, the Deauville Partnership set up the MENA Transition Fund.
The Transition Fund demonstrates a joint commitment by G8 members, Gulf and regional partners, and international and regional financial institutions to support the efforts of the people and governments of the Partnership countries as they overhaul their economic systems to promote more accountable governance, broad-based, sustainable growth, and greater employment opportunities for youth and women.
The Transition Fund has been designed to be rapid, flexible, and responsive so that Partnership countries can quickly call on it in support of a combination of diagnostic analyses, technical advice, and implementation of targeted policy initiatives. Through the Transition Fund, a modest amount of official finance can catalyze much larger changes that will help enable transitions to new, sustainable economic models.
The Transition Fund is a broad-based partnership providing grants for technical cooperation to help transition countries strengthen their governance, social and economic institutions by developing and implementing home-grown and country-owned reforms.
Consistent with its knowledge-sharing and transformational objectives, the Transition Fund emphasizes funding for technical cooperation proposals that leverage and complement support from other partners where relevant, in particular, bilateral donors, academic institutions and policy research institutions, regional and international organizations, industry and labor associations, and other civil society organizations.
South-South partnerships are encouraged (i.e. those between developing/transition countries) including from outside the MENA region, as well as institutions with regional experience focusing on technical cooperation or knowledge sharing.
The Transition Fund focuses on cross-cutting, multi-year projects as well as projects with short-term impacts that are country-owned.
“Would you have enjoyed it so much if a mosque at the center of Europe were converted into a church?” — Ertugrul Özkök, Hurriyet, March 8, 2014.