Disease has long been a daily concern at al-Hol, a detention camp in north-eastern Syria for families of ISIS militants, but now each death raises anxiety about COVID-19. With repatriations on hold, the UN and other international bodies must step up medical and humanitarian aid.
Read More »Lebanon’s collapse is Hezbollah’s slow unraveling
Hezbollah has been working for years on integrating itself into the Lebanese state. Now that the country is falling apart, Hezbollah’s assimilation into the state apparatus, which was initially meant to protect the organization against international pressure, could pose a direct threat to the group’s future.
Read More »Top PKK terrorist killed in Turkish anti-terror operation in northern Iraq
Senior PKK terrorist Fadil Ekinci in charge of the terrorist group’s activities in Iraq’s Zap region and listed in the blue category of Turkey’s wanted list was killed in an anti-terror operation in coordination with National Intelligence Organization, reports said Wednesday.
Read More »The pandemic will unleash worst recession since Great Depression, says IMF chief
The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world will turn global economic growth “sharply negative” in 2020, triggering the worst fallout since the 1930s Great Depression, with only a partial recovery seen in 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
Read More »US engagement in the Black Sea and Middle East. What more can be done?
Since Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and annexation of Crimea in 2014, the United States has spent billions on Black Sea security. Assistance has been insufficient in real terms however, given Russia’s continued aggression and land grabs. US support for the Black Sea and the Middle East has been …
Read More »Watchdog Blames Syria For Chemical-Weapons Attacks
The global chemical-weapons watchdog has for the first time directly blamed the Syrian government for three chlorine and sarin nerve-gas bomb attacks in late March 2017 on the central town of Lataminah.
Read More »Iraq's Saleh tasks PM-designate Kadhimi with forming new government
Iraqi President Barham Saleh has officially tasked prime minister-designate Mustafa al-Kadhimi with forming a government after the intelligence chief received the endorsement of the majority of the country’s top political figures.
Read More »UN report says Syria or allies likely to blame for attacks
A U.N. investigation says it is “highly probable” that the Syrian government or its allies were responsible for attacks on five facilities in the last opposition stronghold in the northwest in 2019.
Read More »Exclusive: sanctioned Hezbollah agent has close ties to Iran’s money laundering network in Iraq
A shadowy Hezbollah intelligence operative in Iraq has close ties to what the US refers to as a key money-laundering network by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, an investigation by The National has found.
Read More »Iran Continuing Overt and Covert Activities in Iraq
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic that has consumed the attention of both Iran and the United States, as well as that of Iraq, Iran has continued to try to ensure that it maintains preponderant influence in Iraq. Iran views U.S. forces in Iraq as the spearhead of U.S. influence there, as …
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