December, 2021

• 28 December

  Russia Is Playing With Fire in the Balkans

  

  This year marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Yugoslav wars, Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II. Although the Balkan states moved toward democratic governance and integration with NATO and the European Union in the immediate aftermath of the wars, consistent neglect on the part of the …

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• 28 December

  Currency crisis threatens Turkey’s Syria strategy

  

  Turkey’s economic turmoil might challenge Ankara’s grip over opposition-held areas in Syria, where in-house rivalries among the armed factions over financial resources have escalated. With economic turbulence rattling Turkey’s economy, the question is rising of whether Ankara can maintain its grip on Syria’s opposition-held areas where the Turkish lira is …

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• 28 December

  Iraqi court certifies election results

  

  Many Iran-backed militias rejected the results of the October election in which they performed poorly. Iraq’s Supreme Court today certified the results of the October elections. Judge Jasim Muhammad Abud announced the decision in a statement that was published by the official Iraq Media Network. Iraq held nationwide elections in …

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• 28 December

  Iraq continues to kill, capture IS members as effectiveness questioned

  

  Iraqi security forces have captured and killed a number of key Islamic State facilitators and others in the past month amid a US mission transition and concerns over coordination. Iraqi security forces continued their operations against Islamic State (IS) cells and sources of funding in December with a number of …

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• 28 December

  Syrian jihadist group opens food market north of Idlib

  

  Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls Idlib in northwestern Syria, is supporting development projects in various economic sectors. A food market has been opened in the city of Sarmada, north of Idlib, under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The opening ceremony, which was held Dec. 12, was attended by …

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• 28 December

  Israel plans to double Golan Heights population

  

  Relocating its weekly meeting to the Golan Heights Kibbutz Mevo Hama, the government approved a 1 billion-shekel plan for the development of the region. Israel’s Cabinet approved Dec. 26 a 1 billion-shekel ($317 million) plan for encouraging demographic and economic growth in the Golan Heights. Aiming at doubling the Israeli …

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• 28 December

  Kurdish leaders say poverty ‘biggest threat’ as it drives Syrians into arms of Islamic State

  

  Offers of money by the Islamic State to join its ranks prove “irresistible” to those hit hard by Syria’s collapsed economy. A man being led by security guards shuffles into an interrogation cell in a military prison in the Kurdish-administered city of Hasakah in northeastern Syria. His hands are cuffed, …

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• 28 December

  Yemeni rebel attack on southern Saudi Arabia kills 2 people

  A Yemeni rebel attack on Saudi Arabia’s southern border town of Jizan killed two people and wounded seven more late Friday, Saudi state-run media reported. Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a projectile that killed a Saudi citizen and Yemeni resident in the southwestern Saudi province of Jizan, the official Saudi Press …

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• 28 December

  Turkey freezes assets of 770 people for alleged terror links

  Turkey froze the assets of 770 Turkish nationals and a Chicago-based foundation, according to a decision published Friday in the country’s official gazette. The list of targets includes 454 people with alleged links to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States. The Turkish government accuses Gulen and …

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• 28 December

  Unavoidability Of Sino-American Rift: History Of Strategic Decoupling – Analysis

  Americans performed three very different policies on the People’s Republic: From a total negation (and the Mao-time mutual annihilation assurances), to Nixon’s sudden cohabitation. Finally, a Copernican-turn: the US spotted no real ideological differences between them and the post-Deng China. This signalled a ‘new opening’: West imagined China’s coastal areas …

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