The Kurdish-held town of Tell Rifaat stands out as the focal point of a potential new crisis in northern Syria as Turkey threatens another military offensive amid discords with Russia and the United States. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has raised the specter of a new Turkish military campaign against Kurdish …

Grievances have been piling up unaddressed in Tihama, Yemen’s Red Sea coastal plain, for almost a hundred years. Since the revolt of al-Zaraniq against Imam Yahya Hameed al-Din of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom (then North Yemen) in 1925-26, consecutive Imams and the republican elite have pursued policies that have systematically marginalized …

Iran-Azerbaijan relations have been going through a rough patch recently; both sides have genuine concerns that they want addressed. Iran could have addressed its various bones of contention with Azerbaijan through diplomatic channels. After all, both countries have full diplomatic relations; this includes fully functioning embassies and ambassadors on each …

Conflicts are enormously destructive. They destroy lives and property, uproot communities, and reduce the economic potential for all involved. This devastation often has an unaccounted cost, both in terms of the obvious direct destruction of lives and assets, as well as the indirect costs that weigh on economies, often for …

A reshaping of the Iraqi political scene, despite low turnout As was widely expected, voter turnout in Iraq’s early parliamentary elections, held on Oct. 10, was historically low. Official turnout came in at 41% — out of 22.12 million registered voters — or an even lower 34% when taking into …

Iran’s new conservative government under President Ebrahim Raisi has based its approach to the nuclear talks for the revival of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on three key documents that lay out clear directives: first, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Oct. 21, 2015 letter to then-President Hassan …

Memories of the Lebanese civil war resurfaced this week as images appeared of children hiding in hallways and behind cars while deadly sectarian clashes unfolded outside their schools in Beirut’s Tayouneh neighborhood. Protests organized by Hezbollah and the Amal Movement to demand the removal of the judge investigating the August …

A proposta de OE2022 aponta para uma maior estatização da economia, uma enormíssima dependência da Europa para a realização de investimentos e uma perda de autonomia orçamental a prazo. O Orçamento do Estado para 2022 (OE2022) apresentado esta segunda-feira constitui a aplicação do orçamento europeu em Portugal. Ou seja, não …

The blame game has been a very frequent tool used in the Cyprus negotiation process. The late President Rauf Denktaş used to say, “If I replaced the signature under their own proposals with that of mine and hand back, the Greek side would reject the document immediately.” He was jokingly …

Peut-on vraiment négocier avec un gouvernement britannique qui se nourrit de la mise en scène de sa confrontation avec l’Europe? Pour l’instant, c’est ainsi: le gouvernement britannique est un partenaire aussi fiable pour l’Europe qu’un voisin lui tirant la langue, assis sur le contrat qu’il vient de signer. Stoïque (oserait-on …