Recent Posts

Afghanistan Can Be an Opening for U.S. Diplomacy With Russia

On Feb. 15, 1989, Col. Gen. Boris Gromov became the last Soviet commander to leave Afghanistan, crossing the Friendship Bridge into what was then the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Gromov’s departure ended the USSR’s decade-long military occupation of Afghanistan, characterized by some as the country’s version of the Vietnam War. …

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Taliban Crack Down on Freedom, Rein in Fun in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s new defense minister, Mawlawi Yaqoob, has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal as criticizing Taliban fighters who have been seen taking selfies, wearing Western-style clothes, enjoying themselves at amusement parks and Kabul’s zoo, and generally having a good time – not exactly the dour image cultivated by the …

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Cash Camps: Financing Detainee Activities in Al-Hol and Roj Camps

Over two years since the fall of Baghouz, entities managing the detention facilities holding Islamic State-affiliated adults and minors in northeastern Syria face overwhelming challenges in securing this population, particularly alongside people displaced by conflict in the region. Often characterized as wastelands inhabited by a volatile population living in squalid …

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Hamas-Fatah dispute over wearing keffiyeh spills over to Gaza university

Hamas-affiliated police forces assaulted students wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh on the Al-Azhar University campus in the Gaza Strip, causing uproar among the Fatah movement. Hamas-affiliated security forces attacked Sept. 21 several students and university staff wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh at Al-Azhar University in the Gaza Strip. The university’s administration as …

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Syrian jihadist group won’t reconcile with al-Qaeda affiliate in Idlib

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls Idlib, is refusing to sit down with al-Qaeda-affiliated Hurras al-Din leaders to resolve pending disputes. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which controls Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, is refusing calls from al-Qaeda-affiliated Hurras al-Din (Guardians of Religion Organization) to resolve their differences through Sharia arbitration. “A …

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Iran, UAE rehash tensions over contested islands

The UAE deputy foreign minister’s address to the United Nations stirred up the territorial dispute, which has long been at the very core of tensions between the Arab state and the Islamic Republic. “The three islands are inseparable swaths of Iranian territory and any claim on them is vehemently rejected,” …

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