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UkraineAlert

Dec 5, 2017

How Ukraine Can Not Only Survive but Thrive

By Melinda Haring

The timing couldn’t have been better. Ukraine’s war is dragging on, Russia is proposing a sham peacekeeping plan, the humanitarian crisis in the east is worsening, and the conflict is receiving increasingly fewer mentions in the international press. In this midst of this dismal news, Ukraine’s deputy speaker of parliament Oksana Syroid organized the Lviv […]

Russia Ukraine

SyriaSource

Dec 5, 2017

A Future in Question: The Uncertain Fate of Syria’s Opposition Media Activists

By Luna Safwan

Media activists opposed to the Syrian government have documented much of the worst of the war in Syria. However, as President Bashar al-Assad regains control of opposition-held territory, these civilian journalists fear they will have no place in Syria’s future. “It’s not like I did not see this coming. What were we expecting? The government will […]

Syria

IranSource

Dec 5, 2017

Gold Trader’s Sensational Case Pushes Iran and Turkey Closer

By Shahir Shahidsaless

Already-strained relations between Turkey and the US took a further negative turn on Nov. 30 when Reza Zarrab, a controversial Turkish-Iranian gold trader, told a New York court that Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan was personally involved in an international money-laundering scheme that allowed Iran to break US sanctions. Zarrab testified that starting in 2012 he helped Iran […]

New Atlanticist

Dec 5, 2017

Iranian-Backed Houthis Just Caused a Self-Inflicted Wound by Killing Yemen’s Former President

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The death of Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, at the hands of his former Houthi allies will weaken the Iranian-backed rebels, according to Nabeel Khoury, a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. “The demise of Saleh now actually weakens the Houthis’ military and makes them less […]

Saudi Arabia Yemen

MENASource

Dec 4, 2017

Saleh’s death in Yemen is a game changer

By Tarek Radwan

Earlier today, videos showing armed fighters carrying former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s body surfaced online and shocked the region. The General People’s Congress (GPC) confirmed that Saleh and Assistant Secretary General to the party Yasser al-Awadi were killed in a Houthi attack on one of his compounds. This turn of events holds tremendous implications […]

Yemen

MENASource

Dec 4, 2017

Iraq: Managing economic reformation and fighting corruption, with an eye on election

By Harith Hasan

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi recently announced his new war against corruption. In using the term “war,” he intended to convey the difficulty of implementing a productive policy to fight corruption. Abadi hopes to build on his successes in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the crisis with Kurdistan by turning […]

Economy & Business Iraq

IranSource

Dec 4, 2017

Ahmadinejad is Up to His Old Tricks But They No Longer Impress Anyone

By Sirous Amerian

The former president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is again in the forefront of Iranian social media. An egomaniac who cannot bare to fall out of media attention, Ahmadinejad has lately declared war on the Iranian judiciary, which has brought court cases against his top presidential aides, Esfandiyar Rahim Mashaei and Hamid Baghaei, on charges of […]

UkraineAlert

Dec 1, 2017

Ukraine Politicians Embrace Extreme Rhetoric

By Adrian Karatnycky

Ukraine has experienced some major reforms, particularly the ProZorro electronic procurement system, the restructuring of corrupt banks, and fundamental reforms in the gas sector. Nonetheless, the country still suffers from widespread corruption and a malfunctioning court system that has delayed major cases against allegedly corrupt officials. In this environment, politicians on all sides have been […]

Ukraine

FutureSource

Dec 1, 2017

The Battle for Tech Regulation Has Begun

By Cameron Douglas

Three grueling hearings in two days on Capitol Hill seem to indicate that years of government officials giving the tech giants of Silicon Valley—most notably Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon—a relatively loose regulatory rein are now over. Members of Congress of both parties were quick to condemn Facebook, Twitter, and Google for their failure to […]

SyriaSource

Dec 1, 2017

HTS Continues to Evolve

By Mona Alami

The arrest, this week, of several prominent jihadists in Syria by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is a third and possibly final chapter in the group’s coup against its mother organization al-Qaeda, one that was recognized in a harsh statement by the latter’s leader, Aymen Zawahiri. The controversial move is one way for HTS to finalize […]

Syria