... Turkey’s NSC stressed that such operations are not directed against the sovereignty of its neighbors (likely a reference to Syria and Iraq).
There is little doubt that a “prospective operation” means preparing for a military campaign against the U.S.-supported ... ... tries to push Turkey into revoking its prohibition under various pretexts. Finally, another trump card may be Turkey’s refusal to accede to anti-Russian sanctions.
In the current situation, a conflict with Turkey may turn out to be too costly for Moscow,...
... Increasingly, state and non-state interactions can be seen to determine the making of politics: US relations with the Kurds of Iraq bear testimony to this. From 1994 onwards the US State Department increased active working with the Kurdish Regional Government ... ... the different US foreign policy approaches developed towards Kurdish entities.
In contrast, the US relations with the Kurds of Syria and Turkey are both still to be found at an early stage. Limited interactions to have taken place are those through events ...
... country, mainly in Tripoli, unless an agreement is reached among militant groups in addition to Turkey, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, the USA and Russia. The impeachment process of US President Donald Trump and the US role in the MENA region would determine the future of conflicts in many countries starting from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and the future government in Lebanon, Iraq and Algeria, Turkey and Iran. It is also expected that many MENA ...
... component, which is harder to counter. We know that ISIS has already chosen a new leader, and as often happens, when you eliminate the head, the person that comes after is usually even more of a risk. The main priority now is to resolve the issue for thousands of ISIS fighters and affiliates, as well as wives and children who are in prison camps in North-East Syria and Iraq. This is another domain where international cooperation will be necessary to ensure that the instability in these regions do not lead to an ISIS 2.0.
It is in this context that international actors need to learn the lesson of Iraq. Any diplomatic ...
... approach to opportunity-oriented
Since the start of the Russian military operation in Syria in 2015, the configuration of political forces in the Middle East began to undergo... ... in the region, which was the issue since 1990s and accelerated with the invasion of Iraq in 2003, began to fade into the background. Two parallel processes have occurred... ... diversify their ties does not mean a lack of desire to cooperate with the EU and the USA. Regional elites can use their contacts with Moscow to get greater benefits from...
... the United States to take a less active role in the Middle Eastern affairs, which was marked by the withdrawal of troops from Iraq in 2011 under the Obama administration, coincided with the increasing involvement of Russia and China in the processes taking ... ... destructive influence of the actions of Western governments in Afghanistan and Iraq, Russia and China took a different decision on the Syria issue.
While Russia and the United States had an active military presence in Syria, China adopted a more flexible position,...
... days ago, Russian oil major Rosneft announced that it will invest in gas pipelines in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan, expanding its commitment to the region, to help it become... ... infrastructure through which crude is exported via Turkey to global markets. For the USA, it is not satisfied with the Turkish rapprochement with Moscow, and might use the... ... Tehran, especially in terms of the need for their full cooperation in ending the ongoing Syrian conflict. To conclude, even international powers are not in concrete support...
...
Can there be a military “solution” to the global war on terrorism? Will the Islamic State movement really be destroyed in Iraq and Syria? Or will it simply drift like a nomad to other regions, into the Russian Caucasus, North Africa, Egypt and the Sinai, southwest ... ... addition to opposing Russian talks with the Taliban, U.S. officials
have accused
Russia of providing arms to the Taliban, an accusation that has been officially denied by Moscow.
Will it be possible to achieve a more concerted approach, involving both Washington ...
... despite leaving a deeply controversial legacy.
Alexey Khlebnikov:
Will U.S. Attack on Syria Be a Game-Changer?
Mr. Obama came into the Oval Office in 2008 with the goal of... ... all, in 2008 he inherited the two longest wars in the US history in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as a dysfunctional state system of the region. Barack Obama set very ambitious... ... start looking for other regional allies, more pragmatic and more committed. Both Jerusalem and Riyadh reached out to Moscow despite its antagonistic policy in the Middle...
... world faces serious problems today: terror group Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant), the war in Syria and Iraq, the migrant crisis, slow growth. But these are issues civilised nations are capable of solving one way or another.
The system ... ... important point to consider is that Turkey is gradually moving toward Islamism. Is that the greater threat to Russia than Nato?
Accusations are routinely traded between Russia and the US about violations in airspace and water. For now, this is just a mutual ...
