Both Qatar and its adversaries are playing down a major breakthrough. A summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh is expected to pave the way to a possible thaw.

Iraq launched the second phase of Will of Victory operation against ISIS in four different governorates, including Salaheddine, Kirkuk, Samarra and Diyala, announced spokesperson Joint Operations Command spokesman Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji.

The quiet of Al Hol camp in the afternoon belies the trouble that lurks beneath the surface. In an annex of this sprawling facility reserved for some 10,000 foreign wives and children of Isis fighters from around the world, a mutiny is brewing.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey might send troops to Libya to counter Russian-backed militia forces. The battle for control of Libya threatened to escalate further this week as Turkey said it might intervene to stop the Russian-backed forces now closing in on Tripoli, the capital.

Turkey’s foreign minister suggested Wednesday that the United States could be barred from using two strategic air bases in retaliation to possible U.S. sanctions against his country, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Russia, Turkey and Iran are concerned about the increased presence of terrorist groups in Syria’s Idlib province, the three countries said after talks in Kazakhstan, pledging to coordinate actions aimed at eliminating the militants.

American commanders have requested guidance on dealing with an attack from those armed groups and others from Iran and the Syrian government, but officials say they have received muddled direction.

Many additional countries who joined the alliance — such as Poland, Hungary and the Baltic States, which had been Soviet satellites — still consider post-Communist Russia an extremely disquieting potential threat. That is just one issue that has created friction among NATO nations….

President Trump has hastened the withdrawal of American forces from Syria, and is actively seeking to reduce America’s military presence elsewhere in the region, with troop withdrawals under active consideration in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Terrorism, extremism and radicalism will decline as long as Saudi Arabia’s drive toward reform succeeds. If it does not, the West will suffer. Who says so? Norman T. Roule says so — and he should know.