The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia have learned how to play the West. To restore credibility, the EU and the United States should draw clear red lines and respond firmly when these are crossed.
The promise of EU membership was once the silver bullet for resolving all territorial and security issues in the Balkans. That is less and less the case these days. And there is no better proof than the continuing drama involving Kosovo and Serbia.
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Iran has built a network of Shiite militias, now fighting across the Middle East, whose fighters number in the tens of thousands. These militias include battle-hardened fighters as well as poorly trained recruits. They hail from countries across the Muslim world and have varying motivations and interests, but they have one thing in common: they project the Islamic Republic’s power and promote its revolutionary ideology. Iran’s Shiite foreign legion has played an indispensable role in preserving the Assad regime in Syria, but all the groups have expressed a readiness to wage war against all enemies of the Islamic Republic.
This is no longer a small matter after the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian Ambassador to share their concerns with him about his country’s support of this project.
Iran’s continued opposition to the Zangezur Corridor was touched upon here last month, where it was concluded that it’s relying on false pretexts to advance what it regards as its national interests. Since then, the Iranian Foreign Minister implied that the project would redraw regional borders, after which his institution summoned the Russian Ambassador to share their concerns given Moscow’s support of it. Here are five observations about this policy’s motivations and consequences:
It’s surprising how much time Bloomberg’s writers invested in correcting their audience’s perceptions about the North-South Transport Corridor, which they should sincerely be commended for doing. The only constructive critiques that can be leveled against their report is that it should have been published much earlier and that it predictably ends on the politically self-interested note of implying that the US’ secondary sanctions threats could impede this project. Apart from that, it’s a rare masterpiece from the Mainstream Media.
Le président russe Vladimir Poutine a pris l’Occident à contre-pied en réagissant à l’offensive ukrainienne de Koursk, il y a un mois, qui a été largement célébrée comme un point de basculement dans le conflit. Le conflit est effectivement à un point de basculement aujourd’hui, mais pour une toute autre raison, dans la mesure où les forces russes ont profité de la folie du déploiement par l’Ukraine de ses brigades d’élite et de blindés occidentaux prisés dans la région de Koursk pour atteindre une position indétrônable ces dernières semaines sur les champs de bataille, ce qui ouvre la porte à de multiples options pour l’avenir.
For many years now, Hezbollah has served as a major instrument of Iran to take over Lebanon, not only as a territory but as a sovereign state. Many Western countries would like to avoid that and invest in the former “Pearl of the Middle East”, led by France. These efforts are futile in view of the Iranian circumvention apparatus, who’s main mechanism is allocated in the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon. No matter how much pressure is put on a state level, Hezbollah will survive and even prosper, as long as one does not put an end to Hezbollah’s control over these main smuggling routes.
Three decades have passed since Hassan Nasrallah came into power as the general secretary of Hezbollah, shortly after the elimination of Abbas al-Musawi. Over the years there have been several attempts to outline his personality, all of which clearly missed the true story behind this infamous terrorist, and in some cases even disproportionally praised him.
Le dollar et la suprématie américaine
La dédollarisation qui s’opère sur le marché financier mondial n’est guère évoquée dans les médias occidentaux. En dehors de l’Occident, en revanche, on l’espère, car un monde sans le dollar comme monnaie de référence, est considéré comme la voie vers la liberté financière et la fin réelle du colonialisme.
Iran-backed terrorist groups, including Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and Hamas, have proliferated in number and strengthened their presence in the West Bank in recent years. The groups have established battalions (Katibat) in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and beyond. Iranian arms and funding have primarily fueled this violent escalation.
FDD’s Long War Journal has identified 26 West Bank branches belonging to established terrorist organizations, and two independent armed groups.
Abstract: The key mission of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) is to defend the Iranian Islamic Revolution and create armed militias in the countries of its “Axis of Resistance.” Its organization is opaque and complex, coordinating combat operations with soft-power actions aimed at, among other initiatives, establishing a Pax Irania in the Middle East, a ‘peace’ of which it is the initiator and guarantor. Although the Quds Force’s apparatus in Syria has been under pressure from Israeli airstrikes, Tehran is sticking to its mission set: infiltrating Syrian civil society and sending fighters to the north, where the civil war will one day end, and to the south, on the edge of the Golan Heights, to establish a base against Israel if necessary.