U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Sunday downplayed the importance of the election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as the new Iranian president, saying that whether the United States ultimately rejoins the international pact to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program will depend on decisions made by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. …
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Libyan unity PM declares coast road open but eastern forces still block it
The head of Libya’s unity government on Sunday declared the main coast road across its inactive front line reopened, but eastern-based forces allowed no traffic through, underscoring unresolved divisions that threaten a fragile peace process. Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh used a mechanical digger to remove the earth roadblock at the …
Read More »Iran and the 3+3 Regional Cooperation Format in the South Caucasus: Strengths and Weaknesses
Over the past three decades, various initiatives for regional cooperation in the South Caucasus have been proposed, including the “Peaceful Caucasus Initiative” (Eduard Shevardnadze), “Stability Pact for the Caucasus” (Suleyman Demirel, on January 16, 2000), “Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform” (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, August 13, 2008), and “United Caucasus” (Mikheil …
Read More »China: The Elephant in that Room in Cornwall
While Obama looked the other way, China militarized a string of atolls in seas around it as part of a long-term plan to forge an aggressive profile against its neighbor and the United States. The Chinese challenge can and must be met both in the global arena and inside the …
Read More »China and Russia
The actions of the Beijing government since the earliest days of concern about the disease have shown in stark relief how a closed, authoritarian society tries to deny and shift blame for its misdeeds. How it seeks to co-opt international health agencies. How it tries to bribe foreigners to do …
Read More »US to pull Patriot batteries from key MidEast countries – report
According to the WSJ report “the Biden administration is sharply reducing the number of US antimissile systems in the Middle East in a major realignment of its military footprint there. The US is moving up to eight Patriot air defense batteries from key countries in the Middle East, according to …
Read More »US Defense Department approves replenishment of Israel’s Iron Dome system
The Secretary of Defense announced during a Thursday congressional session that the request for military assistance has been approved and the US will transfer the requested amount over to Israel. The United States has pledged to replenish and reinforce Israel’s Iron Dome system following the most recent escalation between Israel …
Read More »Is the ‘hardliner’ talking point about Iran’s Raisi a whitewash?
Is the term accurately a descriptive for Iran’s far-right extremist theocratic leaders, or is it used to whitewash and excuse Iran’s politics? A global narrative present in major media outlets uses the term “hardliner” to describe Ebrahim Raisi, the winner of Iran’s presidential election on Saturday. The term “hardliner” was …
Read More »40 years since Operation Opera, attack against Iran ‘would be different’
Unlike the raid on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear project, Iran’s nuclear sites are spread across the country, some deep underground or in mountains, surrounded by air defense systems. Forty years after Israel destroyed Iraq’s fledgling nuclear program, one of the pilots who took part in Operation Opera warned that an attack …
Read More »Turkey is radicalizing extremists to attack Kurdish women
Women have become key targets of Turkey’s extremist government in recent years, videos increasingly showing violence against women in the streets of cities, including women being beaten by men. Photos show Deniz Poyraz smiling and happy. But for Turkey’s far-right, she was a threat, a young woman activist who was …
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