Yearly Archives: 2023

Assad Comes in From the Cold

His Rehabilitation Will Only Encourage More Brutality in Syria and Elsewhere After many years of equivocation and handwringing, Arab states have decided to bring Syria in from the cold and back into the fold. Arab foreign ministers announced earlier this month that Syria would be readmitted to the Arab League, …

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Nigeria: How UK Special Forces Have Been Operating Secretly in Nigeria – Report

A report has revealed that the British Special Air Service and the European country’s other special forces have carried out operations clandestinely in Nigeria and 18 other nations for the past 12 years. This was corroborated by an incident in 2012 when a group of SBS commandos attempted and failed …

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Amid the Taliban’s Worsening Crackdown on Journalists, News in Afghanistan Is Forced to Adapt

On a Saturday morning last month, 31-year-old journalist Abdul Saboor Sirat took a taxi to a ceremony in his home city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan for “Afghan Journalists Day.” He joined around 100 people gathered in the basement of a cultural center. But within thirty minutes, the journalists meant …

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“Once Upon a Time in Iraq: Fallujah” Filmmaker on Showing the Impact of War on Humans

With the Iraq War underway, U.S. Marines were sent to clear out insurgents in the key strategic city of Fallujah in central Iraq in November 2004. The deaths of four U.S. contractors months earlier had sparked an outcry, becoming one of the triggers for a battle that would go on …

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Chabahar Port Transit Project: The Eastern Wing of the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC)

The Chabahar Port Transit Project, is of great importance in the “International North–South Transport Corridor” (INSTC), because it is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean., writes Valdai Club expert Vali Kaleji. In his article, Dr. Vali Kaleji, a Tehran-based expert on Central Asia and Caucasian …

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Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East

Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East. Steven Simon. Penguin Press, New York, 2023. It should be obvious that U.S. policy in the Middle East is now losing influence. Steven Simon’s new book “Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions …

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Pashinian Says Armenia Is Ready To Recognize Nagorno-Karabakh As Part Of Azerbaijan Under Certain Conditions

Armenia said it is ready to recognize the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of neighboring Azerbaijan under certain conditions, a compromise that could help end a decades-old conflict and revive an impoverished region. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told a press conference on May 22 that any recognition by …

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Iranian President Replaces Chief Of Powerful Security Council

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has removed Ali Shamkhani as the head of the powerful Supreme National Security Council and replaced him with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who has been under sanctions from the United Nations, the European Union, and the United …

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Russia Claims Group Crossed Border From Ukraine In Attack; Nuclear Plant Back Online

Violent clashes erupted on the Russian-Ukrainian border with Moscow accusing a Ukrainian “sabotage group” of trying to make an incursion into the country, an allegation Kyiv rejected. Explosions and sporadic gunfire could be heard on May 22 in the Belgorod region, with the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, saying that fighting …

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Turkey’s Elections: Nationalist Identity Politics Wins Out Over Misery

There will be a second round for the presidential vote on May 28, but an opposition victory seems unlikely. Turkey is a country where average schooling is 6.5 years. In other words, the average person is a 7th grade drop-out. Ninety-five percent of Turkish citizens have never travelled abroad.

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