April, 2021

• 24 April

  Syrian missile exposes Israel’s fragility

  The Israeli military is concerned by the failure to intercept a long-range missile fired from Syria. According to Israeli military assessments, the Syrian anti-aircraft missile that exploded in the pre-dawn hours of April 22 near the southern town of Dimona was not targeting Israel’s nearby nuclear reactor. However, the Israel …

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Fighting between Syria’s Kurdish forces, pro-Assad militia enters fourth day

  CENTCOM commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said the United States is “prepared to assist” the Kurdish-led forces to de-escalate clashes. Fighting escalated between Syria’s Kurdish-led forces and members of a pro-regime militia in the northeastern city of Qamishli on Friday after a local community leader was shot dead returning home from …

  Read More »
• 24 April

  US Formally Notifies Turkey of Removal From F-35 Deal Over S-400 Purchase, Report Says

  The United States has officially notified Turkey that it was excluded from the agreement on the F-35 jet production due to its purchase of Russian-made S-400 air defence systems, the official Anadolu news agency reported, citing a Pentagon source. According to the news agency, the US abrogated the 2007 F-35 …

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Prague-Moscow Tensions Escalate As Czechs Slash Russian Embassy Staff And Slovakia Expels Diplomats

  The Czech Republic has said it wants more Russian diplomats to leave the country and neighboring Slovakia has decided to eject three Russian Embassy staff in solidarity, as tensions between Prague and Moscow escalate over Russia’s alleged role in a deadly 2014 explosion at a Czech arms depot. Newly appointed …

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Afghanistan Sees Resurgence Of Warlords, In Familiar Echo Of Civil War

  Afghanistan’s powerful former warlords are remobilizing their old militias in anticipation of what many expect to be a bloody new chapter in a decades-old conflict. Armed groups loyal to regional and local strongmen have rearmed and reappeared in the country’s northern, western, and central regions in recent months. The former …

  Read More »
• 24 April

  Russia Orders Troops Back To Permanent Bases After Drills In Annexed Crimea

  Moscow says it has ordered its troops to start returning to their permanent bases following extensive military drills in southern Russia and in and around the occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in March 2014. The April 22 announcement comes amid heightened tensions with the West over Russia’s …

  Read More »
• 23 April

  Police, Soldiers among Albanian Ruling Party’s Voter Tracking ‘Army’

  Critics see echoes of Albania’s feared Communist-era ‘Sigurimi’ in the discovery of a database that purportedly belongs to the ruling Socialists and contains detailed personal data of almost a million voters, each of them assigned to a party apparatchik often on the public payroll. The contents of a database leaked …

  Read More »
• 23 April

  CZECH-RUSSIAN RELATIONS HEADED FOR ‘BEYOND CATASTROPHIC’

  Czech accusations the Kremlin was behind a 2014 explosion at a munitions depot that killed two people and the subsequent expulsion of 18 ‘diplomats’ will further damage already strained relations, notwithstanding the president’s pro-Russian leanings. The Czech Republic accused Russia on April 17 of being behind a 2014 explosion at …

  Read More »
• 23 April

  Constitutional Reform In Contemporary Bosnia – Analysis

  Bosnia and Herzegovina has one of the world’s most notoriously dysfunctional constitutions. Although at 5,000 words the document is also one of the world’s shortest constitutions, brevity is not always a benefit. The constitution was prepared by US lawyers overseeing the peace negotiations ending the Bosnian war in Dayton, Ohio …

  Read More »
• 23 April

  Europeans warn against attacks on Iran nuclear facilities

  

  “We condemn escalatory measures by any actor which could jeopardize progress.” Iran’s clerical establishment said it will not return to the 2015 agreement unless all sanctions are lifted. The European parties to the Iran deal warned against taking non-diplomatic steps to stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, in a statement …

  Read More »