The Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fuad Hussein, confirmed on Thursday that 3,000 Iraqi terrorists detained in Syria have been returned to Iraq, where the majority of them have been tried, according to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Al-Sahaf. During his speech at the ministerial meeting …
Read More »US Sees Islamic State Affiliates Pooling Resources, Growing Capabilities
U.S. officials tasked with tracking Islamic State are seeing worrisome signs that the terror group’s core leadership is strengthening control over its global network of affiliates despite a series of key losses. Specifically, the United States is raising concerns about the group’s General Directorate of Provinces, a series of nine …
Read More »Is the one-state solution the only democratic future for Palestine-Israel?
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is fond of stating “There is no Plan B” to emphasise the refusal to veer away from the two-state paradigm, over which there is international consensus. Yet Israeli colonialism in Palestine has rendered the two-state framework defunct. “Israel was established against a historical trend of mass …
Read More »The Tantura massacre: Challenging Israel’s narrative about the Nakba
In May, an investigation into the 1948 massacre of a Palestinian village carried out by Zionist militias revealed the locations of several new mass graves. The first-of-its-kind study has corroborated survivors’ testimonies and challenges longstanding Israeli denial of the killings. The investigation, carried out by human-rights-focused research group, Forensic Architecture, …
Read More »Kingdom of Change: Saudi Arabia’s Evolving Foreign Policy
What lies behind Riyadh’s recent spate of diplomatic initiatives – and how likely are they to succeed? Over the past few months, Saudi Arabia has attracted international attention with one diplomatic initiative after another – from its beginning of normalisation with Iran, to peace talks with the Yemeni Houthis, to …
Read More »An uncertain future for Idlib as Assad is welcomed back to the international stage
Despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad being welcomed back onto the international stage, all is not well at home. His country is broken into three parts, which, at best, are in a state of uneasy coexistence and at worst are stuck in a low-intensity active conflict. In the country’s northwestern Idlib …
Read More »Blinken calls Turkey’s FM Hakan Fidan, Sweden’s NATO bid tops agenda
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkey’s new Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also touched upon bilateral relations and defense cooperation. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Turkey’s new Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday to congratulate him on his appointment, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. State Department …
Read More »Deciphering Turkey’s new Cabinet: Real reform or window dressing?
President Erdogan’s new Cabinet so far reflects a shift to his reformist days — whether that plays out as such remains to be seen. Turkey’s flailing economy topped the agenda as the country’s new Cabinet convened Tuesday under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the first time since he won a …
Read More »Bad Company: Wagner Group and Prigozhin at Crossroads in Ukraine
As the Wagner Group prepares to withdraw its fighters from Bakhmut after months of brutal conflict, there is growing speculation that its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is angling to have his forces redeployed to fragile states in the Middle East and Africa. Prigozhin has been openly feuding with senior members of …
Read More »IntelBrief: Iran and the Taliban Clash
A recent border clash between Iranian and Taliban forces marked the latest phase of a longstanding water rights dispute between the two countries. The fighting might upend Tehran’s relationship with Taliban leaders, which is already burdened by the Taliban’s brutal treatment of Shia Muslims and some Persian-speaking Afghan groups. Both …
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