US-Turkiye brinkmanship won’t reach a point of no return

A conflict of interest between Ankara and Washington over Syria will likely see the two drift apart, with Turkiye aligning more closely with Eurasian powers.

The series of airstrikes against Kurdish militants in northern Syria by Turkish jets in the past week come amid heightened concerns over Ankara’s threat to launch a ground operation. Such actions are not without precedent, yet have thus far achieved little in terms of eradicating the security challenges posed by US-backed Kurdish fighters.

Turkish airstrikes decimate Syrian energy facilities: Oil Minister

The strikes have also worsened northern Syria’s water crisis, as a number of water pumps and desalination plants have been halted

Syrian Oil Minister Bassam Tohme announced on 30 November that the Turkish airstrikes on northern Syria, which began around ten days ago, have severely damaged the country’s energy facilities, including a gas plant, several oil wells, and electricity stations.

Massive cache of Iran-bound weapons seized by Iraqi authorities: Report

Baghdad has recently assured Tehran that it will not allow the IKR to serve as a hub for anti-Iran operations

Iranian media outlet Tabnak published a report on 2 December showing photos of a huge cache of confiscated, Iran-bound weapons which were reportedly seized by Iraqi authorities in the city of Sulaymaniyah, east of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) and not far from the border between Iraq and the Islamic Republic.

‘Not a choice, but necessity:’ Iran, India recalibrating ties amid geopolitical shifts

Following a drop in trade brought on by US sanctions, New Delhi and Tehran – boosted by their mutual strong relations with Moscow – are set to revamp ties in a new era of Eurasian multipolarity.

“Not a choice, but a necessity.” That’s how Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani stressed the importance of closer strategic and economic ties between Tehran and New Delhi during his visit to India in November.

Russia Using Caspian Sea To Launch Strikes Against Ukraine

“[Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] soldiers are firing Grads at civilians, hitting residential areas, orphanages, maternity hospitals with ballistic and cruise missiles. Ukraine is our home!”

This is the last social media post by 28-year-old Valeria Hlodan from Odesa.

Pentagon Rings The Alarm – Analysis

India and issues relating to the country figure large in the latest US Department of Defense (Pentagon) report to Congress released on Tuesday. It needs to be emphasised that this is a report of a major US department which spends a great deal of money on ensuring the security of the United States (US). The money is appropriated by the US Congress, and therefore, there is often a tendency to overstate threats or to make them sound more immediate than they actually are. At the same time, while the Pentagon may be guilty of overstatement, its assessments are not figments of their imagination, but extrapolations of actual developments on the ground.

US-Led Forces Resume Normal Patrols In Syria

A US-led coalition fighting terrorists resumed regular patrols in Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria on Friday after earlier Turkish airstrikes.

Patrols were reduced following the Turkish strikes that began on Nov. 20 in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq, in response to a deadly Istanbul bombing that Ankara blamed on Kurdish groups.

Ethiopia Needs A Peace Coalition To Underpin Its New Accord – Analysis

After a devastating two-year civil war, the Ethiopian government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a cessation of hostilities agreement on 2 November. The war killed over 500 000 people and displaced millions.

But the agreement still hasn’t received universal support across the Ethiopian political elite and their constituencies. A commitment to peace among these groups is as important as that of the government and the TPLF. Securing it could ease the implementation of potential sticking points in the peace agreement such as disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.