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MENASource

Dec 19, 2014

The Recent Drop in Crude Prices Means Big Savings for Egypt

By Alfred Jasins and Brendan Meighan

The government’s budget may see some much needed relief in the near future as oil prices on the international market have fallen precipitously. The decline coincides with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s attempts to unwind crippling energy subsidies that have driven up government deficits and debt, drained foreign currency reserves, and strained relationships with international oil […]

North Africa

MENASource

Dec 18, 2014

Syria: Hope for De-Escalation

By Frederic C. Hof

Hope springs eternal in the Obama administration that a Deus ex machina in the form of a diplomatic process producing military de-escalation and Syrian political transition will enter unbidden from stage left and relieve the West of any obligation to counter the Assad regime’s systematic program of mass murder.  President Barack Obama, quite properly, has […]

Syria

MENASource

Dec 18, 2014

Top News: HEC Issues Regulations for Election Observation

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s High Elections Commission (HEC) issued on Wednesday regulations governing civil society’s observation of upcoming parliamentary elections.

MENASource

Dec 18, 2014

International Actors Undermine Libya’s Hopes for Peace

By MENASource

In an interview with the New Atlanticist, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East Karim Mezran, argues that international actors are undermining UN efforts to broker peace in Libya. “If all these external forces support troops on the ground, then the push for war is much stronger than the […]

Libya

MENASource

Dec 17, 2014

Top News: UN to Vote on Extending Cross-Border Aid Delivery into Syria

By MENASource

The UN Security Council has scheduled a vote Wednesday on a draft resolution extending cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid to Syrians in rebel-held areas in desperate need of food and medicine, without approval from Damascus. The resolution would extend until January 2016 and authorize aid delivery by UN agencies and relief organizations across conflict lines.

MENASource

Dec 17, 2014

Top News: Forty Students Expelled from Egypt’s Police Academy Over Brotherhood Links

By EgyptSource

Forty students were expelled from the police academy after “investigations by the security forces and the national security proved that they belong to the Muslim Brotherhood,” said interior ministry spokesperson Hani Abdel-Latif on Tuesday.

MENASource

Dec 17, 2014

EconSource: Egypt To Pass Mining, Industrial Land Laws

By EconSource

According to Egyptian investment ministry, Egypt will pass laws related to mining and the allocation of industrial land in an attempt to speed reforms aimed at attracting foreign investors ahead of the investor conference in March.

MENASource

Dec 16, 2014

Abadi and the Iraq Effect

By Ramzy Mardini

Will Haider al-Abadi survive Iraqi politics? The new Iraqi prime minister has certainly made bold decisions early on into his tenure as prime minister. Nevertheless, his political survival remains an uncertainty.

Iraq

MENASource

Dec 16, 2014

Top News: Syrian Soldiers, Rebel Fighters Killed in Battle for Government Bases in Idlib

By MENASource

Around one hundred Syrian soldiers and eighty Islamist fighters were killed during a two-day battle in which insurgents captured the Wadi al-Deif military base, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Tuesday. The human rights monitoring agency also reported that at least 120 regime fighters were captured and another one hundred retreated […]

MENASource

Dec 16, 2014

Top News: Presidential Decree Creates New Police Rank with Power of Arrest

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decree on Monday to create a new police rank with arrest powers, the move will increase the number of law enforcement staff.