Eurasia

The Iranian foreign minister complained about how he was forced to act for military interests instead of diplomatic ones. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed discontent with the influence the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps has over diplomatic affairs, expressing rare criticism of former IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, …

Leaked tapes appear to show Zarif claiming that Russia wanted to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015. Leaked recordings are the latest twist in a strange saga that appears to pit Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem …

On Tuesday, just one day after Chad’s incumbent president, Idriss Deby, was declared the winner of the country’s April 11 presidential election, a military spokesperson announced that Deby had been killed on the battlefield while overseeing fighting with rebels known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, or …

Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his decision to fully withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept.11. After 20 years and two generations of American service members fighting there, America’s longest war will come to an end. What will the legacy of that war be for the U.S. military? …

Is Russia a threat to the United States? Many policymakers and pundits certainly seem to believe so. Last month, President Joe Biden labeled Russian President Vladimir Putin a “killer.” Pundits and analysts make similar claims, warning of Moscow’s eagerness to “act as an anti-U.S. spoiler at every opportunity,” declaring Russia’s …

To understand the Czech arms depot explosion, you have to delve into the history books. Two striking facts from a Czech investigation into the GRU’s role in the 2014 explosions of ammunition depots in the village of Vrbetice shed light on how the GRU has developed over the years. First, …

The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted drones fired at southern Saudi Arabia but did not confirm an attack on the Aramco oil facility. Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed to have fired bomb-laden drones on an oil facility and an air base in southern Saudi Arabia, the latest in a series of …

Israel is seething with conflict between Jews and Arabs with increasing tension in the West Bank, rocket fire from Gaza and with fear of escalation on the northern border. Israel completely closed off Gaza’s fishing zone this morning. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Rassan Alian had …

The Afrin Liberation Forces, which has escalated attacks against the Turkish-backed opposition in the Aleppo countryside, is being secretive about the sources of its support, weapons and training. The Afrin Liberation Forces, a group of Kurdish fighters from Afrin also known as Hezen Rizgariya Efrine (HRE), recently stepped up their …

With the weekend’s developments in the Czech Republic and Belarus, the new border between Russia and the West is calcifying, eliminating not only movement from one side to the other, but also the freedom not to choose a side. The last few years haven’t exactly been uneventful, but even so, …