Eurasia

The fate of 63 officers and agents from the Intelligence Communications Department is still unknown. They were captured in January 2020 following the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by a U.S. attack, a military source told Zaman al-Wasl Wednesday. At least 20 officers and 43 telecommunication operators were held …

Russia’s ambassador to the Assad regime, Alexander Yefimov, said that his country’s agreement with Turkey regarding Idleb does not eliminate the necessity of its “return” to what he described as “the sovereignty of the legitimate government as soon as possible.” The Russian ambassador made these remarks during an interview with …

The fourth anniversary of the start of the battle for Raqqa, which led to the city’s liberation from the Islamic State (IS), has just passed. Raqqa was IS’ Syrian capital, and it took over four months for the liberators, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to wrest back control of the …

Peace in Yemen does not mean a reversion to the status quo ante; competing external powers must determine what peace terms they can tolerate. When Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in the spring of 2015, Riyadh expected a decisive campaign in which its air force would blaze a path for …

US President Biden skilfully managed the summit with his Russian counterpart, and succeeded in passing on to Moscow some key messages. But that won’t make US–Russia relations more predictable. After a week of hugs and back-patting from the US’s closest allies in the G7, NATO and the EU, US President …

Last night the G7 concluded its summit in Cornwall with a commitment to tackle illicit finance and corruption. In reaction, Tom Keatinge, Director of RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, said: ‘We welcome the inclusion of illicit finance in the G7 communiqué, putting corrupt actors and kleptocrats worldwide …

NATO countries must undergo a renaissance in the way they collectively develop and execute strategy. The forthcoming Alliance summit is the right venue to start. The heads of state and government of NATO countries are coming together in Brussels early next week to take the Alliance forward in the face …

The NATO brings to mind the classic paradigm of someone all dressed up and nowhere to go. It has to constantly reinvent a reason for its existence. The NATO is a lucrative hunting ground for the American arms industry. The bigger the NATO’s threat perceptions, the greater the scope for …

When U.S. President Joe Biden participates in his first summit between the United States and the European Union tomorrow in Brussels, he should keep the focus on the big picture. While easing bilateral irritants would improve the tone of relations in the short term, the real test will be whether …

Weeks before U.S. President Joe Biden met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Erdogan vowed that the meeting would be transformative. In a virtual gathering with American investors last month, he predicted that the encounter would “herald a new era.” It was no …