Moscow’s efforts to promote the development of a north-south trade corridor through the Caucasus and to use Iran to circumvent Western sanctions have given Tehran a new and expanded opportunity to take a leading role in the South Caucasus.
About 1,150 individuals left Germany and traveled to the Middle East to join ISIS and other terrorist groups. Germany has conducted various repatriation operations bringing back ISIS-affiliated women and minors though many male fighters remain in Syria and Iraq. According to a recent report published by the Counter Extremism Project, at least 7 women and 22 children remain in the Al-Roj camp, with 2 German women also present in the Al-Howl camp in Northeast Syria.
An interview between a Ukrainian journalist and a Russian Israeli oligarch led to the diplomatic incident.
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have both denied assembling Iranian drones in their territories.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani faces multiple challenges and constituencies to move his agenda.
The Iraqi parliament approved the new government of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Oct. 27, as the 29-page ministerial program put forth by Sudani was put to a vote and received more than 250 of 329 parliamentarians’ votes.
Iran played a key role in helping form the new Iraqi government.
Iraq’s new government under Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani is likely to be on better terms with Iran than the previous government.
The Coordination Framework, the coalition which brought Sudani to office last week, and which consists of Iran-backed groups and paramilitary factions, was able to form the government after Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — an Iraqi nationalist who has long been critical of Iran — withdrew his bloc from parliament this past June.
The Russian military closed the so-called “grain corridor” used to ship Ukrainian agriculture products through the Black Sea on Monday. The move was provoked by the actions of Ukraine, which used the route to launch attacks on Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The U.S. military is prepared to take action to defend American troops and allies in the Middle East, following a media report that Iran could be preparing attacks against Saudi Arabia and Iraq, national security and defense officials said Tuesday.
Among all the conflicts that divide humanity –historically and now when humans should be working together racing against time to save the biosphere—including conflicts of Israelis vs. Palestinians, gays vs. homophobes, pro-life people vs. pro-choice people, Catholics vs. protestants, Muslims vs. Hindus, conflicts among nations seeking power in an “anarchic” world system, blacks vs. racists, Turks vs. Armenians, and others—surely some of the most divisive conflicts, in terms of lives lost, in terms of prisoners tortured, in terms of resources wasted and assets destroyed , in terms of terror, and in terms of truth itself disappearing in endless mazes of lies, have been and continue to be conflicts of socialism vs. capitalism. Could this be a case where one of the major causes of pointless suffering has been and continues to be, conceptual confusion? Yes, it could.
On October 23, one person, identified as Jameza Mubin, died in an early morning explosion in a gas cylinder-laden Maruti 800 near the Kottai Eswaran Temple in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore District. There were two LPG cylinders inside the vehicle, of which one exploded. As reported on October 26, this incident took place around 200 metres from a Police patrol.
In the last couple months, Ukraine has successfully pushed back against Russia’s invading forces. It retook a large chunk of territory around the northeastern city of Kharkiv. It is on the verge of recapturing the only major city—Kherson in the south—that Russia has occupied since February. Ukrainian forces have also targeted airfields in Crimea and may well be responsible for the attack that caused significant damage to the single bridge connecting the peninsula to the Russian mainland.