“We don’t have specific courts for Muslims… the essence of Danish society is that we have courts that apply to everyone… There are many democratic Muslims, who lead normal lives and are well integrated in Danish society…. I know it is easier said than done, but then we as a society must support them.” — Minister of Integration Mattias Tesfaye, Berlingske Tidende, February 2, 2020.
In character and politics, Kosovo’s president and new prime minister are very different beasts, with two decades of disagreement behind them. Can they bury the hatchet, at least for the sake of Kosovo’s EU-mediated talks with Serbia?
Bosnia and Herzegovina is once again in the throes of political crisis, and once again the chief architect is Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the country’s tripartite presidency.
As the over-mighty presidents of Kosovo and Serbia meet again without revealing much about their talks, the question is whether either of them has the mandate, the willpower – or the interest – to reach a final deal.
The presidents of both Kosovo and Serbia paid visits to Washington this week, and again circumvented the governments of their respective countries, reportedly making promises they have no legal right to make.
On October 26, 2019, U.S. Special Forces launched a major operation that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The French president’s recent speech is a sign that moderate leaders are waking up to the threat posed by political Islam.
Britain has tightens curbs against Kurdish terror groups in a new round of measures against extremists.
A new exhibition of photographs taken during and immediately after the NATO bombing of Kosovo in 1999, showing the suffering of the people on the ground, has opened in Prishtina.
This third extract from Ian Bancroft’s new book, ‘Dragon’s Teeth: Tales from North Kosovo’, tells the story of the so-called ‘University of Pristina, temporarily located in Kosovska Mitrovica’ and how it has become the lifeblood of north Kosovo.
EU foreign ministers agreed to revamp the EU’s naval mission in the Mediterranean by redeploying naval assets to monitor the UN’s arms embargo. Crisis Group expert Giuseppe Famà says a renewed naval presence off Libya’s coast could increase the EU’s ability to name and shame violators and deter some arms transfer to the warring parties. But it remains to be seen how the embargo can be monitored elsewhere in Libya and whether, in the event that migrant flows surge, member states will succumb to domestic pressure by swiftly withdrawing naval assets.
President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar agreed to form the long-awaited unity government after major concessions from both parties. Crisis Group expert Alan Boswell says Kiir reverted the country to ten states, firing 32 governors and reversing much territorial gerrymandering, and Machar accepted to return to Juba without his own security forces. Much work remains on many fronts but the deal offers a real chance to end the long civil war.
As a humanitarian disaster unfolds in Idlib, the last bastion of Syria’s Islamist rebels, the question is whether accommodation is possible between the militants and their foes. External actors should answer by gauging the insurgents’ ability to maintain calm and their sincerity about aiding civilians.
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