April 3, 2023 Eurasia, Middle Orient
Russia asked Iraq’s government to reopen its airspace to the Russian military, which wants to transport troops and equipment to its bases in eastern Syria, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported on 29 March. According to a diplomat and Iraqi officials who spoke with MEE, the Russian-Syrian air corridor through Iraqi …
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April 3, 2023 Eurasia, Middle Orient
Bruno Lafont says the French intelligence service was behind the decision to continue operations in Syria and pay off ‘terrorist groups’ like ISIS In an interview with Liberation published on 31 March, Bruno Lafont, the former CEO of Lafarge, accused French intelligence of having infiltrated the company in Syria, where …
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April 3, 2023 Africa, Eurasia, Middle Orient
Sudan’s relations with Israel have vacillated between periods of hostility and outreach. Today, Khartoum’s leaders view these ties as a means to gain international legitimacy, while Tel Aviv aims to eliminate Khartoum as a haven for pro-Iran and Palestinian resistance factions. Unlike most Arab countries whose relations with Israel have …
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April 3, 2023 Balkans, Eurasia, Serbia
Unlike in previous years, the 2023 annual US Threat Assessment Report views West Asia through the prism of a Great Power competition that threatens to nudge the world into a post-US multipolar order. On 8 March, 2023, the US Director of National Intelligence released the Annual Threat Assessment Report, which …
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April 3, 2023 Balkans, Eurasia, Serbia
All arguments against Serbia’s membership in NATO boil down to emotions, Serbia’s military neutrality is a political phraseology created by a political compromise, and the announced training of 5,000 military special forces is a dangerous tendency to create class layers within the Serbian Army, said the executive in an interview …
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April 3, 2023 Balkans, Eurasia, Serbia
Vučić’s address to the citizens on Friday in Kraljevo was, according to media reports, impressive, and supporters demonstrated symbiosis this time as well. The president’s address was followed by numerous chants from supporters with exclamations of “Aco Srbine”. The stands in the sports hall, where the meeting was held, and …
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April 3, 2023 Eurasia, Kavkaz
Some Europeans, Americans, and Canadians do not want to accept the fact that Armenia is second only to Belarus in being a Russian satellite state. Instead, they treat Armenia as a budding and prospective candidate for European integration, ignoring the impossibility of Armenia being allowed by the Kremlin to do …
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April 3, 2023 Eurasia, Iran, Middle Orient
The silence from Iran is deafening. Judging by social media reactions and media reports from Iran, few, if any, members of the Iranian public seem to care that, since 2011, the Israeli air force has attacked Iranian and Iranian-affiliated positions in Syria on more than a thousand occasions. More surprisingly, …
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April 3, 2023 Eurasia, Middle Orient
The recent agreement to restore diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran raised hope among Western leaders and some Yemen watchers that it could help bring an end to the war in Yemen, in which Tehran and Riyadh back opposing sides. Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, who …
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April 3, 2023 Eurasia, Iran, Middle Orient
The trend lines in US-Iran relations today make for grim reading in Washington. Faced with unrelenting US pressure, Iran’s leaders are regularly meeting with Russian and Chinese officials and pledging unprecedented levels of cooperation. Iran’s nuclear program recently crossed a key threshold into production of weapons-grade uranium. American policymakers today …
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