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Iran Is Already Raising the Stakes for Biden in the Middle East

Just days into the new year, Iran announced that “a couple of hours ago,” it had started enriching uranium to 20 percent—a level that experts say would put it within a six-month sprint of converting its entire nuclear stockpile to bomb-grade material. Tehran’s move Monday raises the pressure on President-elect …

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The Nuclear Deal’s Fate Lies in Politics—in the U.S. and Iran

In the four decades since Iran’s Islamic Revolution, relations between Tehran and Washington have seen deep enmity offset by brief periods of rapprochement and tactical cooperation. As a new U.S. administration settles into office and asserts its intent to, in President Joe Biden’s words, “offer Tehran a credible path back …

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Lessons From Tunisia’s Past Crises Can Help Resolve This One

As Tunisia marked the 10th anniversary of the removal of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali on Jan. 14, people poured into the streets, defying a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. While every January brings some form of popular protest around the revolution’s anniversary, things are different this year.

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Kosovo’s Courts Struggle to Hold Corrupt Officials to Account

Kosovo has made progress in reducing a backlog of corruption cases, but very few corrupt officials end up behind bars. Its rivals in Kosovo’s February election, Vetevendosje [Self-Determination] vowed to reinvigorate the fight against endemic corruption in Europe’s youngest state. Winning in a landslide, Vetevendosje will have the chance to …

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Bulgaria’s Fragmented Opposition Hopes to Ride Wave of Discontent

After a turbulent year, April’s elections are bound to bring about a shakeup in the country’s parliament – but with opposition forces so divided, the governing parties’ defeat is far from certain. Bulgaria’s Game of Thrones is starting to look more and more like a different movie – perhaps the …

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Serbian Government was ‘Blind’ to Security Unit’s Deadly Threat

In November 2001, the Special Operations Unit, a Serbian State Security special forces unit, staged an armed mutiny and blocked highways, saying that they wanted the government to stop extraditing Serbs to the UN war crimes court in The Hague. Looking back almost 20 years later, veteran journalist Milos Vasic …

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Cyber-Attacks a Growing Threat to Unprepared Balkan States

Balkans states might be prepared on paper, but in practice they are struggling to confront the growing threat from cyber-attacks. Bosnia doesn’t have a state-level strategy. It wasn’t voting irregularities or the counting of postal ballots that delayed the results of last year’s parliamentary election in North Macedonia, but an …

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SOHR: 280 Russian airstrikes in four days in Syria

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) provided statistics on Russian activity in Syria. According to reports, Russia has carried out 280 airstrikes in 96 hours (four days). According to the SOHR, Russian units performed almost half of them (130) in the last 24 hours.

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Casualties among Erdogan’s mercenaries in explosion south of al-Bab City, Aleppo countryside

Casualties were reported among the Turkish occupation-backed “al-Hamzat Division” terrorists in an explosion which took place at the fence of one of the training camps affiliated to them, south of al-Bab City in Aleppo northeastern countryside. “A strong explosion hit the fence of the Cement Institution which has been seized …

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