Latest Articles about Middle East
RUSSIA’S RETENTION OF GUDAUTA BASE — AN UNFULFILLED CFE TREATY COMMITMENT
In the run-up to the Conference to Review the Operation of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE), Moscow is urging the 1999-adapted treaty's ratification despite its own non-compliance with its commitments. The continued functioning of its base at Gudauta in Georgia is one... MORE
READING PUTIN’S MILITARY TEA LEAVES
Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual speech to the Federal Assembly on May 10 was notable for its emphasis on military affairs. Putin outlined new and increasing threats from the arms race, stated that terrorism and other conflicts were coming closer to Russia, and cited America's... MORE
Bin Laden’s African Folly: Al-Qaeda in Darfur
Could a United Nations peacekeeping mission face al-Qaeda's fighters in Darfur? According to Osama bin Laden, if a UN force deploys in the region, al-Qaeda will attack UN troops. On April 23, al-Jazeera television broadcast a bin Laden audiotape in which he called for al-Qaeda... MORE
NEW ATTACKS FORCE KREMLIN TO LIFT INFORMATION BLOCKADE ON CHECHNYA
Yesterday, May 17, Russia's official news agency, Interfax, reported that a convoy of Russian troops had been ambushed near the Chechen village of Nikikhat. Official casualty figures listed five dead and six wounded. The news resembled reports that regularly came from Chechnya during the first... MORE
Egypt Attacks May Indicate Emerging Sinai Bedouin Insurgency
Egypt appears to have scored a number of successes in recent weeks in its war against Islamist militants. Counter-terrorist units and police converged on an olive grove in the mountainous area known as Gabal al-Arish on the outskirts of the northern Sinai coastal town of... MORE
GSPC Leader Issues New Threat to U.S. Military Bases in North Africa
A recent threat from a prominent Algerian jihadist may expand Algeria's 14-year-old Islamist revolt to include U.S. military targets in the African Sahara and Sahel. The statement, issued by Mukhtar Bilmukhtar (Khaled Abu al-Abbas), comes at a time when the movement is under intense pressure... MORE
RUSSIA’S VIRTUAL MILITARY MIGHT SHIELD AGAINST U.S. CRITICISM
Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to parliament last week was perhaps less interesting in its "how-to-spend" content than in what was left out. The secrecy around the drafting of the speech had been tighter than around Stalin's war plans or Brezhnev's health bulletins, but observers... MORE
PUTIN’S NEW DEAL: KREMLIN PLAYS UP NATIONALIST CARD
The annual address Russian President Vladimir Putin gave to the Federal Assembly on May 10 has already been billed by some Kremlin spin-doctors as Russia's version of the New Deal -- the set of policies pursued by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the wake of the... MORE
PUTIN REPORTEDLY SIDES WITH ALKHANOV—FOR NOW
Kommersant published an article on May 6 confirming that the Kremlin had sided with Chechen President Alu Alkhanov following the reported shoot-out between members of his security service and members of security forces loyal to Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov (see Chechnya Weekly, May 4).... MORE
Al-Suri’s Treatise on Musharraf’s Pakistan
Ayman al-Zawahiri's new video release, titled "Message to the People of Pakistan," closely meshes with the work of Abu Musab al-Suri (also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar), one of the chief political thinkers of al-Qaeda, who was arrested last November in Pakistan (Terrorism Focus, March... MORE