Eurasia

Syria’s Kurdish-led forces alleged Maher al-Aghal was also affiliated with Turkey-backed opposition group Ahrar al-Sharqiya. A US drone strike on Tuesday killed the leader of the Islamic State group in Syria, the US military announced today. Maher al-Agal was killed near the town of Jidayris in Syria’s Afrin region, according …

Turkey and Turkmenistan are working on a gas deal that will likely extend to Europe in a bid to reduce Western dependency on Russian gas. With fears mounting that Russia may cut off gas supplies to Europe, Turkey is working on plans to bring in gas from Turkmenistan and has …

The Turkish, Iranian and Russian leaders are set to meet in Tehran next week amid lingering Turkish threats against Syrian Kurdish groups. Putin and Erdogan will separately discuss the Ukrainian grain crisis. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Tehran next week, …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Chinese counterpart that China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine is exacerbating the US-Chinese relations at a time when they are already “beset by rifts and enmity over” a long list of other issues. However, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the …

US President Joe Biden has approved the shipment of a brand-new type of precision-guided artillery rounds as part of its new tranche of military assistance to Ukraine, according to a senior defense official. The insider said the most recent security support would be a combination of capabilities currently used throughout …

Promises, Parts, and Pipelines The main natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany has been shut down today for scheduled maintenance. Ordinarily, this would be no big deal. However, since Russia invaded Ukraine, everything has changed. Moscow has not been shy to use energy reserves as leverage during their almost …

“The alarming amendments offered by the Biden Administration to the WHO’s International Health Regulations would grant new unilateral authority to [WHO] Director-General Tedros to declare a public health crisis in the United States or other sovereign nations, without any consultation with the U.S. or any other WHO member. Specifically, the …

Diplomats at the United Nations held last-ditch discussions on extending Syrian cross-border aid Sunday, as residents of the country’s rebel-held northwest feared life-saving supplies could soon halt. The lack of an agreement threatens to upend assistance to more than two million people. The aid delivery mechanism across Turkey’s border into …

Iran has already been striking the US in the region in dozens of rocket and drone attacks over the past year. Reports over the weekend said that Iran was upping its rhetoric against any sort of US-backed air defense pact that might link Israel and several Arab countries together. Ostensibly, …

Dressed in their distinctive black uniforms, fours soldiers of Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Services last week revisited the scenes of their bloody battles against ISIS in Mosul, the northern city the elite force played a key role in liberating five years ago.