Eurasia

While co-hosting an interview on the Palestine Chronicle, I asked Dr. Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, about his thoughts on Kamala Harris’ promise to maintain unconditional aid to Israel.

A warm welcome and expressions of solidarity against China likely await U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week when he visits East Asia for the first time in over a year, but the looming U.S. election means Asian allies will think twice before making concrete promises to Washington.

Japan and the United States will begin negotiations as early as this week on a cost-sharing agreement for hosting American troops in the Asian country, diplomatic sources said, with Washington expected to pressure Tokyo to significantly increase its contribution.

Trump holds a chart of weapon sales as he welcomes Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office, March 20, 2018. Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered on October 2, 2018 by agents of Saudi Arabia’s despotic government, and the CIA concluded they killed him on direct orders from …

Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Severest escalation since 1994 ceasefire erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan along front line in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict zone, raising risk of worsening fighting in Oct.

Lebanon Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib resigned this week citing failure to form a new government amid political gridlock. Lebanon has been without an empowered government since the cabinet resigned in August in the wake of the deadly Beirut port explosion. Crisis Group expert Heiko Wimmen says while political elites fight …

Syrian fighters say they were deceived into fighting and were led to believe that they would protect military points rather than fight against Armenian forces, Al-Masdar reports

Local sources say that the area’s population opposed the arrival of Russian troops, SY 24 reports The Russian Army tried to establish a new military base in the areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria, which was met with popular refusal, forcing it to …

Yet more trucks belonging to Hussam al-Qatirji have collected oil from Kurdish held areas and transported it to regime held lands reports Baladi News. Oil tanks belonging to Hussam al-Qatirji continue to enter the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to transport oil to the regime-held areas.

David Schenker, the US assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, said: “We will not tolerate threats to our citizens who serve abroad”. Iraqi Kurdistan’s counterterrorism service blamed Wednesday an attack on US troops near Erbil airport on the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an umbrella grouping of mostly Iran-backed …