Understanding the potentially apocalyptic consequences of nuclear war, it is clearly in the national security interest of the United States to reduce nuclear risks. This necessitates a multilayered effort to slow the spread of nuclear weapons and technologies, reduce nuclear stockpiles, secure nuclear materials and prevent the proliferation of delivery systems for nuclear weapons. None of these efforts can be truly successful without the help and cooperation of the Russian Federation. Indeed, the Russian impact on U.S. nuclear risk reduction goals cannot be overstated. Russia’s arsenal constitutes over 45 percent of the global nuclear stockpile. Those weapons are coupled with delivery systems that could reach American soil in about 30 minutes, meaning Russia presents a clear and ever-present existential nuclear threat to the United States. U.S.-Russian bilateral nuclear risk reduction efforts have produced successes in the past, but those efforts are now fading and failing. Should the United States want to continue to reduce nuclear threats in the 21st century, it has no choice but to engage in a reinvigoration of nuclear policy dialogue and cooperative activities with Russia.
Though Moscow’s stance on Iran’s regional activities might be ambivalent, Russian competition with Iran in Syria, as well as their military-defense cooperation, will afford Washington limited opportunities to rely on Russian leverage-plays with Tehran.
Turkish forces continue to expand their presence around the key M4 highway in Idlib as attacks by new groups fuel uncertainties in the rebel-held region.
Obscure jihadist groups have stepped up attacks on Turkish forces in Syria’s rebel-held province of Idlib, adding to Turkey’s dilemmas amid the fragile status quo in the region.
The United States notes with concern the pattern of ongoing PRC attempts to intimidate its neighbors, including Taiwan. We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives.
China passed its coastguard legislation on Friday, and experts said China will safeguard sovereignty regarding the dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands.
The 25th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) concluded on Friday afternoon in Beijing, and adopted the coastguard law. The law came one day after senior Japanese and US officials discussed their alliance and the Japan-US security treaty’s Article 5, which assures the US defense obligations apply to the Diaoyu Islands.
Israeli security officials say the United States is expected to soon begin deploying Iron Dome missile systems to its bases in the Persian Gulf Arab countries.
Speaking to Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday, the officials refused to reveal the countries in which the Iron Dome batteries will be stationed.
After taking hold of Idlib, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham sought to expand control over the Free Syrian Army-held areas in the Aleppo countryside by marketing its alleged security and civil administration successes and the lack of security in the FSA areas.
Factions of the Free Syrian Army are supporting their fighters to return to school and graduate, as part of efforts to promote education among their fighters.
The Egyptian peninsula’s deadly insurgency lingers on.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack that Egyptian security forces said killed one security officer and wounded three other people in the Sinai Peninsula early Thursday.
The UN-backed government said the bodies were found blindfolded and with their wrists bound.
Forensic experts in western Libya have discovered 10 more bodies buried in mass graves, the internationally recognized government announced on Thursday.
Although Turkey’s defense minister seems to be satisfied with the outcome of his recent visit to Baghdad and Erbil, there are several impediments to Turkey’s security demands.
Unknown parties have carried out several operations against some of the Turkish army outposts in Idlib, with some accusing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and others pointing the finger at Islamic State or regime cells.
How Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to improve ties with the United States and the European Union and get Turkey out of its economic morass without making any significant concessions remains unclear.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking a new chapter with the new US administration in order to overcome Ankara’s deeply strained ties with Washington. He signaled this in the letter of congratulations he sent to newly elected President Joe Biden on Nov. 10.
After more than a month of negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, progress toward a peace agreement remains slow. The key unknown variable is whether the United States has an appetite for staying involved in the long grind of overseeing a peace process that must reconcile two divergent views of Afghanistan’s future—which can only be answered by the winner of this week’s presidential election.
When President-elect Joe Biden enters the Oval Office on Jan. 20, he is unlikely to have North Korea at the front of his mind, given the many other urgent crises he will confront. But the Korean Peninsula has a way of forcing American presidents to pay attention.
Although President Donald Trump has not conceded the United States presidential election and is mounting multiple dubious legal challenges to the results, President-elect Joe Biden is moving ahead with the transition.
Syria has condemned western countries for interring in the affairs of Russia and accused them of exploiting the Navalny issue writes SANA.
Syria has strongly condemned the blatant US and Western interference in the internal affairs of Federal Russia, pointing out that this behavior show once again the state of hypocrisy, which has become a distinctive characteristic of the Western policies, particularly when they talk about democracy and human rights.
The Fourth Division has attacked the town of Tafas in Daraa, resulting in a call for a general mobilization by the Daraa Central Committee reports Baladi News.
SDC co-chair Riad Darar has called on the Syrian Democratic Forces to join the work of the Constitutional Committee and find a political solution writes Asharq Al-Awsat.
No security cabinet meetings since election called on December 23 • ‘In this government, the cabinet practically didn’t function’
The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet has not convened in over a month, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formulates his policies on the Iranian threat with a new US president who seeks to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal.
McKenzie’s upcoming visit comes at a time of increased tension in the region due to Iran’s continued aggression.
Commander of CENTCOM, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, will arrive in Israel later this week in what will be the first high-level visit by a top American official since Joe Biden was sworn in as president last week.
Other Fatah operatives said they were “surprised” to hear about the idea of joining forces with Hamas.
Senior officials of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction have expressed opposition to the idea of running in a joint list with Hamas in the parliamentary election on May 22.
‘The system will assist the US Army in protecting American troops from ballistic & airborne threats, as well as from developing threats in the areas where US troops are deployed on various missions.’
On January 13, the US Treasury Department in the final days of the Trump administration, sanctioned the Astan Quds Razavi Foundation and 15 other institutions, some of which are under the direct supervision of the regime’s Supreme Leader, to further its maximum pressure campaign.
SOHR sources say that joint forces of the National Defense militia, the Palestinian Al-Quds Brigade and the pro-Russian Fifth Corps, as well as regime forces, continue to comb areas in the Syrian desert, from Kabajib and al-Shoula west of Deir ez-Zor to al-Sukhna, as part of the security campaign that began on the 16th of this months, which aims to secure the Deir ez-Zor-Homs road, after the ambushes and escalating operations of the Islamic State, which continues launching new attacks on the Syrian regime and its allies.
Libya entered 2020 in midst of full-blown war between rival GNA and Haftar’s National Libyan Army (AFP/File photo)
Russia-backed Wagner Group mercenaries are digging an enormous trench in war-torn Libya, potentially threatening to derail a UN-brokered peace deal, CNN reported.
Members of the pro-Assad regime militia known as the National Defense Forces (NDF) attacked a checkpoint of the Kurdish-led security forces (Asayish) in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishlo. One militiaman was killed, one source said.
The checkpoint is located in Qamishlo’s Hilko neighborhood.
Druze leader urges Hariri to withdraw from the task of forming the government as long as the matter is in the hands of Hezbollah and its ally, the Free Patriotic Movement. He also alledges that Mrs Aoun holds the real reins of power.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said it is the wife of Lebanese President Michel Aoun who rules Lebanon through a “secret room”, and that she protects her son-in-law Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, whom he called “a permanent authority in the making”.
Saida Garrach, a former adviser to the late President Beji Caid Essebsi, reacted to Harouni’s statements by saying that “the state protects Tunisians, not the militias of parties and their offshoots.”
The head of Ennahda’s Shura Council Abdulkarim Harouni drew angry reactions from politicians this week after calling on “sons of the movement” to confront spreading youth protests in the country.
Sources say the GNA leader is coordinating with warlords and militia leaders after the failure of his recent visit to Rome.
The head of the Libyan presidential council of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj, sent a clear message Monday to Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha and the UN mission and its head Stephanie Williams that he intends to remain in office and shield himself for that purpose behind a number of warlords and militia leaders to thwart any settlement formula that does not satisfy him and his allies.
The meeting in the Moroccan coastal town of Bouznika, south of the capital Rabat, brings together 13 representatives from the Tobruk-based House of Representatives, and 13 from the Tripoli-based High Council of State, which advises the GNA.
The Islamist group sees Biden’s arrival at the White House as another opportunity to attempt to implement its project in the region.
For the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood, political expediency has taken the upper hand over religious dogma, as the globally-implanted militant organisation welcomed incoming US President Joe Biden’s commitment to Christian virtues.
