November, 2025

• 26 November

  Syrian Kurdish commander says he wants to visit Turkey, meet with jailed PKK leader

  

  Mazlum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has said he is ready to travel to Turkey and meet with jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan, as Turkish lawmakers plan to make the first parliamentary visit to his island prison under a new peace initiative. Abdi …

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• 26 November

  Syrians displaced by war are returning to find homes occupied by foreign fighters

  

  Under a golden autumn sun, Abdallah Ibrahim harvests fistfuls of hard, green olives with evident delight. “We were denied this pleasure for the last 14 years,” he sighs. Barrel bombs and constant shelling caused his family and most of the residents of his village, Al Ghassaniyeh, to flee during the …

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• 26 November

  Hezbollah confirms Israeli strike on Beirut killed senior leader

  Hezbollah has confirmed senior commander Haitham Ali Tabatabai was killed in an Israeli air strike on a suburban area of Beirut on Sunday. The group said “the great commander” was killed in “a treacherous Israeli attack on the Haret Hreik area in the southern suburbs”. Mr Tabatabai was deputy to …

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• 24 November

  Iran Update, November 21, 2025

  

  Toplines Some Syrian General Security Service (GSS) units are improving their counter-insurgency approach in rural minority areas by relying on relationships with locals. The GSS arrested a large Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Assadist cell in Sheikh Bader, Tartous Province, on November 12.[1] Independent Syria researcher Gregory Waters reported on …

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• 24 November

  The Ursula doctrine

  Brussels’ bid to promote an ‘Economic Security Doctrine’ epitomises the EU Commission chief’s grand strategy: to repeatedly churn out vacuous grand strategies You’ve heard of the Draghi report. You might remember the Competitiveness Compass. You probably don’t recall the Small Affordable Cars initiative. And what was the Budapest Declaration again? …

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• 24 November

  West tells Zelenskyy: “We don’t welcome you. We welcome Ukrainian people in your person”

  

  This will be a text about how our international partners are reacting to “Mindichgate.” I’ve heard a lot over these past days. Throughout all the years of the full-scale war, the vast majority of us, when speaking publicly, maintained the president’s line. Even when it was difficult, we restrained ourselves …

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• 24 November

  Palestinian terrorists fire on Israeli soldiers, break ceasefire 8 times from November 13 to 21, IDF says

  

  Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have violated phase one of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas on at least eight occasions between November 13 and November 21, according to reports from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Since the ceasefire’s implementation on October 10, Palestinian groups have violated the deal 32 …

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• 24 November

  Iraqi Government Formation: Iranian-backed Iraqi Parties Are Poised to Control the Next Government

  Iranian-backed political parties are preparing to form the next Iraqi federal government after winning over a third of the seats in the recent parliamentary elections. These parties may exclude or at least weaken Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al Sudani, despite his coalition winning the plurality of seats. Sudani could try …

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• 24 November

  Russia Eyes Return to Southern Syria

  

  Russia stepped foot in southern Syria for the first time since the fall of Bashar al-Assad almost a year ago. On November 17, a Russian military delegation traveled to the southern region, where they conducted “reconnaissance operations” in Quneitra Province, which borders the Golan Heights. The Russians were accompanied by …

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• 24 November

  The Financial Dimension of EU Internal Security Threats

  

  European states should take a finance-led approach to addressing hybrid threats, organised crime and terrorism. Introduction and Background In April 2025, the EU published its updated internal security strategy, ProtectEU, underlining the reality that the lives of European citizens ‘have become less secure’. Hybrid threats, organised crime networks and terrorist …

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