How Raisi’s death will test the unity of Iran’s hardliners

Analysis: Upcoming elections and the succession race for Supreme Leader could deepen infighting among Iran’s conservative political camp.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, died in a helicopter crash in the north-western province of East Azerbaijan province on 19 May, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six others.

To demonstrate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ability to handle any crisis, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared five days of national mourning and appointed First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber as interim president, with the country expected to hold early presidential elections on 28 June.

Who is ‘Abu Obeida’, the iconic masked spokesperson for Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades?

Abu Obeida attracts a wide audience of Palestinians and Arabs due to his eloquence in the Arabic language and his creativity when he speaks.

When a new recording of Abu Obeida, the official spokesperson for Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, is aired, millions of people pay attention and tune in to hear him speak in a concise and eloquent Arabic.

Germany at a Crossroads

Europe’s biggest economy is struggling to cope with a rapidly changing geopolitical environment. Chancellor Scholz has yet to provide the necessary leadership.

Since the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany seventy-five years ago, the country has rested on four pillars. Today, none of them can be taken for granted.

Biden’s secret support for Iran America is far from Israel’s best friend

This past Memorial Day, as Americans honoured their war dead, the Biden administration was running interference for an Iranian regime whose Supreme Leader has described “death to America” as his official state policy. A report in the day’s Wall Street Journal described how the US was “pressing European allies to back off plans to rebuke Iran for advances in its nuclear programme”. This followed a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency that assessed Iran has increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to more than 30 times the limit set in the 2015 nuclear deal — enough to produce three to four nuclear weapons within a week, according to experts.

Isis Report

ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is an extremist group formed from al-Qaeda offshoots in Iraq and Syria. Since its formation in 2013, ISIS has worked to sustain a self-declared caliphate in eastern Syria and western Iraq. Ultimately, ISIS seeks to unite the world under a single caliphate, and to that end the group has begun to establish satellite operations in nine countries. Initially, ISIS gained support within Iraq as a Sunni insurgency group fighting what some Sunnis viewed as a partisan Shiite-led Iraqi government. The group has since garnered additional momentum as a result of the Syrian civil war, and has recruited up to 33,000 fighters from around the world. Thousands of foreign ISIS fighters are estimated to have been killed in battle, while some have returned—or are reportedly planning to return—to their home countries.

Al-Qaeda report

Osama bin Laden founded al-Qaeda during the latter stages of the Soviet-Afghan War with the goal of waging global jihad. Since its founding in 1988, al-Qaeda has played a role in innumerable terrorist attacks, and is most notoriously responsible for the multiple attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. The 9/11 terror attacks—the deadliest ever on American soil—left nearly 3,000 people dead and provoked the United States to wage war against al-Qaeda in the group’s home bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other sanctuaries worldwide. Since then, the group has established five major regional affiliates pledging their official allegiance to al-Qaeda: in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, East Africa, Syria, and the Indian subcontinent.

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Ceasefire should be ‘no-brainer’ for Hamas, Blinken says

Accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel should be a “no-brainer” for Hamas, but the motivations of the militants’ elusive Gaza-based leadership remain unclear, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has announced that its delegation will return Saturday to Cairo to resume long-running talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar that would temporarily halt Israel’s offensive in return for freeing hostages.

A Closer Look at the Global South

The revival of the concept signals enduring frustration with inequalities embedded in the global order.

The venerable concept of the “Global South” has enjoyed a remarkable revival as a descriptor of postcolonial and developing country solidarity in world affairs. The term’s resurgence, however, has also engendered pushback, with many calling for a phaseout of the expression. Writing in the Financial Times, columnist Alan Beattie calls the label “patronising, factually inaccurate, a contradiction in terms,” and “deeply unhelpful.” In Foreign Policy, Indian strategist C. Raja Mohan argues that the phrase “denies agency to individual countries by treating them as one bloc” with “fluid boundaries and vague criteria for inclusion.”

U.S. Forces Intensify Military Exercises in Eastern Syria

U.S. forces persistently conduct military exercises alongside the SDF at the military bases established in eastern Syria, Athr Press says.

U.S. forces, alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), recently conducted live ammunition military exercises at the Vanguard camp (mouaskar al-Tala’ii) , situated east of Hassakeh. Preceding this, they underwent training at their military base established within the Omar oil field in Deir-ez-Zor.

Protests Continue; SDF and Arab Tribesmen Clash

Protests against the government in southern Syria have continued for a second week, marked by demonstrators waving the flag of the Druze minority, burning banners featuring President Bashar Assad, and even raiding offices belonging to his ruling party. Concurrently, clashes erupted between Arab tribesmen and U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters across multiple areas in eastern Syria, resulting in at least 10 fatalities and several injuries. This information comes from reports by opposition activists and pro-government media sources.