Iraq’s elections make ponderous a status quo Washington and Tehran seek to preserve; manoeuvring politicians make work for external powers contesting the fate of Iraq’s Iran-backed militia groups. Iraq’s November national elections positioned incumbent Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition (RDC) as the leading party in federal …

Russia has reportedly modified its Iskander 9M723 ballistic missiles making them harder to intercept. The causes are unclear, but the impact on Ukraine is not. Recently, there have been a series of reports that Ukraine’s ability to intercept the Russian 9M723 Iskander-M ballistic missile with Patriot interceptors is deteriorating. Given …

Iraq’s parliamentary election on 11 November went smoothly from a procedural perspective but left a fragmented political landscape in its wake. While incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani topped the poll on the back of a populist campaign of public sector spending, no one party is close to securing a …

The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved a US-drafted resolution endorsing President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for the devastated Gaza Strip. Authorising an International Stabilisation Force (ISF), a transitional administration, or ‘Board of Peace’, which would oversee reconstruction, while also referencing a “pathway” to Palestinian statehood, the resolution provides …

The Polish National Prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that it has drafted charges against two Ukrainian men accused of carrying out last weekend’s sabotage attacks on the rail network, though the suspects have not been charged in person given they fled to Belarus on Sunday, TVP World reported. The charges …

The Alabuga Special Economic Zone (ASEZ) is a cornerstone of the Adversary Entente’s resistance against the US-led international coalition and is emblematic of the symbiotic relationship between its members. What started as a bilateral Russo-Iranian drone production effort in 2022 has expanded into a four-way center of technological and innovative …

IDF forces attacked Hezbollah facilities in south Lebanon and in the Beqa’a Valley andeliminated operatives of the organization as part of ongoing activity against Hezbollah’spresence in south Lebanon, in violation of the ceasefire understandings and because of theorganization’s renewed attempts to regain its strength and rebuild its arsenal. A rocketlaunching …

What, in an ideal world, might the chief international envoys in Bosnia and Herzegovina say to make this week’s 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords really a day to remember? Imagine the scene: It is November 21, 30 years to the day since the Dayton Peace Accords were initialled …

For the past eight years, Russia and its fellow U.N. Security Council members have maintained economic sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear testing, including severe restrictions on selling crude oil and refined petroleum exports to the isolated dictatorship. The 2017 sanctions limit total exports of oil products to North …

Syria needs an economic reconstruction program. Desperately. Yet nearly a year after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad, there is still no talk of putting together a comprehensive economic reconstruction plan, whether in Damascus or among the obvious international stakeholders. Without clarity and wide-based consultation on the country’s new economic …