Latest Articles about Middle East
RUSSIA AND CHINA EYE BOOMING BILATERAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT TIES
On the sidelines of the high-profile bilateral summit meetings at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) sessions, Russian and Chinese officials reiterated earlier pledges to develop trade and investment cooperation. In the first three months... MORE
THREE SECESSIONIST LEADERSHIPS ANNOUNCE JOINT AGENDA
The de facto leaders of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria met in Sukhumi on June 12-14. The guest delegations reached Sukhumi via Russia, thus nullifying any deniability of Russia's sponsorship of this exercise. The three leaderships had agreed in December 2005 in Moscow to hold... MORE
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES LOSE CONTROL OVER INGUSHETIA
On the morning of June 9, Lieutenant Colonel Musa Nalgiev, commander of the special-task police squad (OMON) in the republic of Ingushetia, left his home in Karabulak to go to a planning meeting at the Ministry of Interior Affairs. Unlike other days, this time his... MORE
IRAN’S NUCLEAR DEMANDS: TOWARD A NEW ERA OF CONTAINMENT?
On May 31, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a statement that the United States would "join the EU-3 talks" with Tehran "should Iran verifiably suspend all of its enrichment-related activities." The announcement came as a surprise, since the U.S. administration had previously refused... MORE
RUSSIA TAKES ANOTHER STEP AWAY FROM DEMOCRACY
Last Friday, June 9, the Russian State Duma approved legislation that would eliminate the voting option "against all" in the ballots provided for elections at all levels, from local to presidential. According to Boris Gryzlov, the chairman of the Duma, this step is aimed at... MORE
NATO AND GUAM COUNTRIES HOLD FIRM AT CFE TREATY REVIEW CONFERENCE
The OSCE's Conference to Review the Operation of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) ended on June 2 in Vienna with a tactical success for the West. The NATO and GUAM countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) thwarted Russia's goal to trigger the ratification... MORE
ANOTHER SENATOR IS FIRED: THE KREMLIN TARGETS THE LEADER OF KALMYKIA
Russia continues to be rocked by purges of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, where deputies (often called "senators") represent regional governments. On May 14, Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council, dismissed four members of the Council. The ousted senators... MORE
RUSSIA VIEWS THE VIENNA AGREEMENTS ON IRAN AS VICTORY
The five-power agreement on Iran reached in Vienna on June 1 represented a victory for Russian diplomacy, in that Moscow and China's tenacity forced Washington to consent to direct participation in talks with Iran, provided it ceases uranium reprocessing and enrichment under IAEA verification (www.payvand.com... MORE
Morocco Cracks Down on Islamist Opposition Group JSA
In a major operation in late May, Moroccan security forces arrested over 300 members of al-Adl wa al-Ihsane (Justice and Spirituality Association—JSA), including ranking leaders, over vague allegations that the group was plotting a violent overthrow of the monarchy (https://www.aljamaa.com). The arrests were made in... MORE
Kurdish Officials Provide Information on al-Qaeda Operatives in Custody
It is widely acknowledged that northern Iraq has escaped the chaos and violence wrought by the Iraqi insurgency, but this does not mean that al-Qaeda and affiliated groups have not attempted to operate in the Kurdish Regional Government's (KRG) territory. Many al-Qaeda members have been... MORE