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UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar Mohammed Gargash and Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Oct. 19, 2016

NATOSource

Oct 20, 2016

United Arab Emirates Deepens Cooperation With NATO By Signing New Partnership Agreement

By NATO

NATO and the United Arab Emirates reinforced their partnership and set out their priorities for future cooperation by signing an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP) on Wednesday (19 October 2016).

NATO NATO Partnerships

SyriaSource

Oct 20, 2016

Russia Won’t Negotiate before Aleppo Falls to the Regime

By Daniel R. DePetris

Before US Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to travel to Switzerland and London last weekend for discussions on the Syrian crisis, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner was crystal clear that people should not expect anything much from the meetings. In hindsight, he was right: the discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov […]

Syria

SyriaSource

Oct 20, 2016

Ambassador Frederic C. Hof’s Remarks at the National Defense University

By Frederic C. Hof

I’d like to thank the US Army Special Operations Center of Excellence and Ambassador Greta Holtz for having invited me to this symposium. It’s been a quarter century since I’ve worn the green suit of an Army officer, and I know for a fact it no longer fits. But as a veteran of Vietnam and […]

Syria

UkraineAlert

Oct 20, 2016

No Peace without the People: A Case for Grassroots Reconciliation in Ukraine

By Lauren Van Metre

This week’s meeting in Paris of the Normandy Four is a critical one. If there is no measurable progress there to advance a framework for peace in Ukraine, public sentiment that Minsk is exhausted as a peace process will only grow. (Editor’s note: On October 19, 2016, France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine agreed to a […]

Russia Ukraine

SyriaSource

Oct 19, 2016

Assad Ends ‘Damascus Reconciliations’ and Makes Stopping the Bombing Conditional on the Opposition’s Departure

By Hosam al-Jablawi

A few days after the Syrian regime forcibly evicted residents of Darayya, it began bombing areas around the capital of Damascus, despite the long-term truce between regime forces and opposition factions in these towns that had been in effect since 2014. According to the truce, the regime would not target residential areas and displaced persons […]

Syria

IranSource

Oct 19, 2016

New Paper Advises Obama Successor to Take Risks with Iran

By Barbara Slavin

As a bruising and dispiriting US election campaign draws to a close, it is time to start planning for a transition that builds on the legacy of the Barack Obama administration and looks for new opportunities for resolution of foreign as well as domestic conflicts.

Iran

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2016

Building on the Iran Nuclear Deal

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The next president of the United States must build on the opportunity provided by the nuclear deal to normalize ties with Iran, said Ellen Laipson, a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, in Washington on October 19. “Iran is not a peer adversary of the United States. We should be able to manage the challenge […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2016

Only KGB Generals Stand between Putin and Absolute Power

By Anders Åslund

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin rules supreme. On September 18, his United Russia party won its largest-ever majority—enough to change the constitution—in the parliamentary elections. He seems to be running circles around the West in both Ukraine and Syria. Yet, Russia’s stability must not be overestimated. Last year, retail sales fell by 10 percent and this […]

Russia Ukraine

SyriaSource

Oct 19, 2016

Assad Wants to Rule Syria, but Economics Say Otherwise

By Mona Alami

Emboldened by his troops’ advances across Syria, President Bashar al-Assad declared in July 2016 that he could retake the whole of Syria in just a “few months” if other countries withdrew their support from rebel and jihadi factions. Despite Assad’s confident appraisal, the destruction of the country’s economy will prevent him from reuniting the country […]

Syria

Trade in Action

Oct 19, 2016

TTIP&TRADE in Action – October 19, 2016

By Global Business & Economics Program

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström has had a busy week: talking about CETA in Luxembourg with the EU ministers for Foreign Affairs and Trade, making the case for TTIP in Brussels with the Board of theEurocommerce, and debating the benefits of TTIP at the Hungarian National Assembly.

Economy & Business Europe & Eurasia