President Donald Trump’s lengthy phone call with Vladimir Putin yielded no major breakthrough and led some European officials to accuse the U.S. president of handing his Russian counterpart a win. The leaders spoke for two hours on Monday as part of Washington’s latest attempt to bring the three-year conflict with …
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Trump Tells Syria to Expel Foreign Fighters, But Sharaa Gives Them Army Divisions
“Tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria,” President Donald Trump told interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh on May 14 — just after lifting all U.S. sanctions on Syria. Yet on May 18, Syria’s Defense Ministry welcomed the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), an al-Qaeda-linked Uyghur jihadist group active in Afghanistan …
Read More »Lebanon Should Take a Cue from al-Sharaa – and Talk to Israel
A joke has it that Syria’s self-proclaimed president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, offered to build a Trump Tower in Damascus to make up for the two New York towers that Al-Qaeda, al-Sharaa former organization, destroyed on 9/11, killing 2,753 Americans. Times are changing. Since October 7, Iran has been begging America for …
Read More »India-Myanmar: Volatile Border – Analysis
On May 14, 2025, at least 10 suspected Kuki National Army-Burma (KNA-B) militants were killed in a gunfight with Assam Rifles in New Samtal village in Khengjoy tehsil (revenue unit) in the Chandel District of Manipur near the Indo-Myanmar border. Seven AK-47 rifles, one Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG) launcher, one M4 …
Read More »Moscow Unwittingly Promoting Rise Of Radical Islam In Dagestan By Not Addressing Problems – Analysis
Dagestan is an extremely complicated society that faces many problems—some unique to the region and others completely analogous to problems within other federal subjects of the Russian Federation. Both Moscow and those the Kremlin has appointed to manage the North Caucasus, however, primarily view protests in the region as reflecting …
Read More »Budapest Conference on Terrorism – Is Terrorism Political Violence or Organized Crime?
Are terrorist organisations primarily politically motivated actors seeking to alter the political landscape, or are they criminal enterprises driven by profit? Is terrorism a strategic tool employed in pursuing ideological goals, or merely a tactic adopted by groups seeking material gain? Alternatively, could these motivations coexist, varying across cases, historical …
Read More »Disbanded PKK Leaves Behind Questions for Türkiye and the Region
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced on Monday its dissolution after a forty-year insurgency against the Turkish state, a move Turkish officials claim was made without new negotiations — though some observers remain skeptical. Türkiye has conducted increasingly aggressive military campaigns against PKK strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria in …
Read More »U.S.-Houthi Ceasefire Leaves Questions Unanswered
A ceasefire between the U.S. and the Houthi (Ansarallah) movement of Yemen, announced by President Trump on May 6, will not soon restore freedom of navigation through the Red Sea. The Houthis sought an end to the intensive and continuous U.S. strikes since mid-March, but U.S. acceptance of a ceasefire …
Read More »Iran Update, May 19, 2025
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Read More »A Russia-NATO War Would Look Nothing Like Ukraine
Russia planned its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine as a decisive, three-day campaign that would take its troops into Kyiv and quickly topple the Ukrainian government. More than three years later, that scenario remains a Russian pipedream. Suffering horrific casualties and losses of equipment, Russian forces are bogged down along …
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