... the Palestinian territory and moved in step with Saudi Arabia in hailing the Madrid peace process. Riyadh very well understood that the nascent irreversible changes in the region should, despite all difficulties, facilitate the emergence of a regional Middle Eastern space incorporating the Arab world and Israel. Riyadh was eager to lead the emerging process and the OIC extended a helping hand through supporting the
al-Aqsa Intifada
and condemning the Israeli response to its advance. By adopting the ...
... within Western media reports of ‘Saudi concern’ and so-called Western bemusement over impending budget deficits. So as you can see, nothing is ever as it seems in the world of high economic ‘political finance,’ especially in the Middle East when it comes to global energy markets. Saudi Arabia is ‘punishing’ itself for one year so as to reward itself for years to come. I imagine the Saudi royal family members will be able to laugh into their gold sipping cups. Just ...
So the United States Senate has released its report highlighting extreme and supposedly ‘abhorrent’ techniques used on terrorist targets after 9/11 to glean greater intelligence and information. Since that release there has been an orgy of oscillating condemnation/hand-wringing with rationalization/chest-beating, depending on whom you speak with. What strikes me more is the whole surreal ridiculousness of this false debate.
I say false debate because in some ways this just highlights...
... States, as well as between Russia and US-oriented European countries, further deteriorated following the G-20 summit in Brisbane due to the crisis in Ukraine. This poses the question for analysts as to how this situation might affect Moscow’s Middle East policy and the existing forms of cooperation with the West on regional issues, namely: the Middle East quartet of international mediators; the negotiations of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) with Iran; ...
On November 14-15, 2014 Oslo hosted a Russia-U.S. expert meeting on bilateral cooperation in the Middle East sponsored by the
Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center
and RIAC with financial support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The Russian side was represented by RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov, Vice-President of Transneft Mikhail ...
... its predecessor, Al-Qaeda, establishing control over a large territory in northwestern Iraq and northeastern Syria, and creating proto-state institutions of authority. This reality is especially disturbing for the United States, which is bound by its Middle Eastern network of alliances to deter ISIS, but at the same time suffers from a twelve-year war-weariness and is not ready to conduct a full-scale counter-terrorist operation. Still, even more disturbing is the evidence of how similar the current ...
... radical Islamist groups that split off from Al-Qaeda of Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the spiritual leader and close associate of Osama bin Laden, took an active part in creating the organization.
The Slate Group, By Joshua Keating and
Chris Kirk
The Middle East Friendship Chart.
Infographics
It is well-known that until 2013, the Islamic State grouping was regarded as an ordinary Sunni autonomous armed unit and numbered no more than four thousand people
[2]
. It was made up of mostly former soldiers ...
Fear, in its various forms, has always been at the root of the most tragic events in the history of humankind. Nowadays, fear of the onset of the bloody Islamic State (IS) and the spread of Ebola are having a tremendous impact on the behavior of global and regional players. It is fear that seemingly binds together these two otherwise unconnected threats. According to Jonathan Freedland, "[IS] feeds Ebola, and Ebola feeds [IS] — and our fear feeds them both."
The fight against IS has...
... three years.
At the same time, the West has made it clear that it will not cooperate with the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has expressed doubts about the effectiveness of cooperating with Russia in resolving the most acute crisis in the Middle East.
Do serious politicians and experts in the West really believe that bombing will solve the problem of Islamic extremism in the Middle East? Has Washington learned nothing from past experience using force in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan? Does ...
... The unabated conflict in Syria and fragile internal situation in Iraq are creating fertile ground for a strengthening in the position of the Islamic State. What will the West, particularly the United States, do next? Will the current alliances in the Middle East undergo any changes?
Vitaly Naumkin
, Doctor of History, Professor and RIAC member, Director of the RAS Institute of Oriental Studies, shares his insights on the situation.
Will the fight against the Islamic State reshape the current alliances ...
