The United States and six Gulf allies announced sanctions Wednesday on 25 entities associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in a move to tighten controls on both group’s finances.
Read More »Monthly Archives: November 2019
Qatar invests millions in US lobbying, but PR problems remain
Qatar’s PR campaign has done little to fundamentally alter the state’s image problems. More than two years after Qatar was boycotted by its Arab neighbours for its alleged support for extremism, the tiny Gulf state is spending millions to repair its image in Washington, only to see new perception issues …
Read More »U.S. Deterrence in the Middle East Is Collapsing
As welcome as was the U.S. raid that lead to the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over the weekend, it can’t erase the damage done to U.S. interests in the Middle East over the past few months. Whatever explanations U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters put …
Read More »Hezbollah’s road to power in Lebanon just got harder
The resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was a victory for anti-government protesters flooding the country’s streets by the millions. It also was a wake-up call for Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim organization that wields substantial power in the region and is regarded as a terrorist organization by the United …
Read More »After Baghdadi, Terrorism Without Ideology
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, a few weeks after Europe was racked by four separate incidents classified as terrorism: a truck-ramming in Limburg, Germany; a series of stabbings at a police station in Paris; a shooting at a synagogue in Halle, Germany; and another set of stabbings at a shopping …
Read More »U.S., Gulf Nations Sanction Iranian Financial Network in Joint Action
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and four other Gulf nations joined the U.S. in imposing sanctions on a financing network controlled by Iran’s military and several men linked to the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Read More »Turkey begins joint patrols with Russia in northern Syria, hands over 18 captured Syrian troops
Turkey has begun joint patrols with Russia in northern Syria after Kurdish militants met a 150-hour deadline to leave border areas near Turkey as part of a deal struck between Ankara and Moscow in Sochi late last month.
Read More »US Withholding $105Mln in Military Aid for Lebanon – Reports
The United States is withholding $105 million in security assistance to Lebanon, media reported on Thursday citing two US officials.
Read More »US envoy: Iran has spent $16 billion on militias in Iraq, Syria
Remarks by Brian Hook come amid growing concern in Israel over potential attack by Tehran in retaliation for efforts to thwart arming of Iranian proxies.
Read More »Troops, armored vehicles enter Syria to protect oil fields from ISIS
U.S. troops and armored vehicles entered Syria Thursday on a mission to protect oil fields from falling into the hands of Islamic State terrorists, according to a U.S. official.
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