Hayat Tahrir al-Sham tried to enter the Turkey-backed factions’ stronghold to support Ahrar al-Sham that refused to support the newly formed leadership by some groups within the movement. Sources in the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) told Al-Monitor that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched an attack at dawn on Nov. …

Lethal force was used against mourners at funerals, women were tear-gassed at a crowded subway station, and more than two months of unrest in Iran appeared far from fizzling out. Nearly 30 people were killed in less than 48 hours as Iranian cities witnessed a flare-up of anti-government protests, which …

French President Emmanuel Macron admitted this week that amid ongoing protests in Iran and the mass detention of demonstrators, it would be very difficult for the West to make progress on talks for a new nuclear deal. The French leadership is finding it harder and harder to separate the talks …

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems to have captured worldwide attention; yet under the Taliban, Afghanistan continues to exist in a state of ‘durable disorder,’ limping along without either fully collapsing or stabilizing. The immediate future in Afghanistan looks bleak, with little confidence that the Taliban will be able to fix …

Don’t let the war win is the mantra of members of Emmanuel Macron’s close circles. This means tackling a wide range of crisis situations that have been triggered by the conflict in Ukraine. The French president went into this weekend with a significant foreign and defence policy agenda to both …

Last Wednesday, November 9, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of Operation Barkhane, the counterterrorism operation established to address the jihadist threat in Mali. The departure of French counterterrorism forces will leave the UN peace operation in Mali – the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) – increasingly …

According to the Washington Post, several U.S. officials discussed with journalists a classified assessment that portrays a vast, multifaceted effort by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to influence U.S. foreign policy. The UAE funds various lobbying efforts, reports by influential U.S. think tanks, and recruitment of ex-U.S. officials to try …

China and India, after months of refusing to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, did not stand in the way of the release this week of a statement by the world’s leading economies that strongly criticizes Moscow. Could this, at last, signal a bold new policy change by Beijing and New …

The focal questions about war In dealing from both theoretical and practical points of view about war, at least six fundamental questions arise: 1) What is war?; 2) What types of war exist?; 3) Why do wars occur?; 4) What is the connection between war and justice?; 5) The question …

Why the Country’s Elites Are Struggling to Break With Putin Even in a war that has gone poorly for Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry’s November 9 announcement of a full retreat from the city of Kherson marked a special kind of disaster. Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city seized …