... Studies (IRAS, Iran), the Center for Strategic Research (SAM) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, Middle East Technical University (Turkey), American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Damascus Center for Research and Studies (Syria), Al-Rafidain Center For Dialogue (Iraq), Al-Quds University (Palestine), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia, and other. The Russian side was represented by experts from RIAC, RAS Institute of Oriental Studies, National Research University Higher School of ...
... is pressed by Saudi power. Palestinians also need Saudi money. Saudi Arabia projects power through Sunni groups into western Iraq and into eastern Syria and Idlib. Israel and Saudi Arabia work together. Also vectors of power are strong from Iran with Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and potentially Bahrain and Qatar. And vectors of power a very strong from Turkey into northern Syria and northern Iraq. The USA works military especially through Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but with cooperation also in Iraq ...
... approach is in many ways a response to the threats to Russia emanating from the Middle Eastern region, especially considering the proliferation of the Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Nusra Front, or al-Qaeda) and so-called Islamic State terrorist organisations in Syria and Iraq. These groups also threaten China’s security, recruiting fighters both domestically and from Russia (as well as from existing terrorist organisations such as the Caucasus Emirate and the Turkistan Islamic Party).
The question of the possible return ...
... control over territories and resources, it retains the ability to attack
Actually, neither the Syrian army, supported by Russia, nor the pro-American Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have managed to establish complete control over the territory near the Syria-Iraq border. Moreover, the SDF includes military groups of the Kurdish YPG self-defense forces, infiltrated by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), recognized as a terrorist organization in Turkey. During the Turkish military operation in Afrin, the ...
... a security system of their own. Iran has been relying on its regional influence, including religious and cultural influence, to build so-called
Islamic resistance
by financing projects to create and maintain cross-border non-governmental actors in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and — some analysts believe — Yemen. [
2
]2 Some experts explain Iran’s policy by its desire to consolidate a fairly large territory in the Middle East predominantly populated by Shiites. The very term Shiite Crescent, ...
... the peoples, eroding their identity, these projects will remain unsinkable.
However, we will hope that the perverted-jihadist version of the Islamist unification project is disappearing into oblivion after the liquidation of its territorial base in Syria and Iraq. As for another radical version of the Pan-Islamic project, the Muslim Brotherhood, the rumors of its death may prove to be exaggerated.
Will the universal federalization ensure a successful way out of the crisis in the region that does not cease ...
The official referendum for Iraqi Kurdistan is soon. The referendum which is designed to sense the will of Iraqi Kurds about independence from Iraq and starting a Kurdish state among Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Theoretically, this might seem possible since Kurds already enjoy an autonomous rule in northern Iraq, they have their own president paramilitary forces and parliament. Plus the decision is being taken through democratic means. But in ...
... the states involved in the conflict more interested in defeating the Islamic State or in overthrowing the al-Assad regime?
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 Asia and Afghanistan, as well as Kashmir?
How will the entry of the Islamic State into Afghanistan impact the ongoing ...
... integral part of the regime’s armed forces. The most famous of these groups are Lebanon’s Hezbollah and numerous Iraqi groups, such as Liwa al-Zulfiqar and Liwa Asadullah al-Ghalib, which emerged as the followers of the Shiite jihad “pioneers” in Syria from the Iraqi forces –
Liwa Abu Fadl al-Abbas
and a conglomerate of Iraqi Shiite groups associated with
Asaib Ahl al-Haq
.
Units that are directly subordinated to the Iranian command of Al-Quds also operate in Syria. These include, in particular, the Fatemiyoun ...
... by how quickly the President made a U-turn on the issue of removing Bashar Assad from power but also by shifts in thinking on such crucial issues as ending expensive wars. Donald Trump won the Republican vote by opposing both George Bush’s war in Iraq and Barack Obama’s war in Libya. However, his decision to strike on a Syrian military base in response to an alleged chemical attack, the option his predecessor ruled out, gave rise to fears that a military option is on the table.
Vasily Kuznetsov:
Donald Trump Will Create a “Window Of Opportunity” In the Middle East
...
