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SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove, May 21, 2015

NATOSource

May 2, 2016

NATO’s Breedlove Calls for Sharper Focus on Russia Ahead of Departure

By Julian E. Barnes, Wall Street Journal

The U.S. has too few intelligence assets focused on the threat from Russia and should concentrate its technical capabilities on Moscow’s growing military might, NATO’s departing supreme allied commander said.

Intelligence NATO

SyriaSource

May 2, 2016

#5YearsWeFled: All I Want is to be Safe

By Ayman Jalwan

This series is from interviews with the lawyer Ayman Jalwan. It highlights the difficult choice that Syrians face—dying in the war zone that Syria had become, or flee the land he loved. Last year, he and his wife said goodbye to their families and joined the wave of citizens leaving the country. First they had […]

Syria

UkraineAlert

May 2, 2016

What the Banning of Crimean Tatars’ Mejlis Means

By Eleanor Knott

In the two years since Russia illegally annexed Crimea, Crimean Tatars have faced the brunt of the de facto authorities’ brutality. On April 15, Crimea’s so-called prosecutor, Natalia Poklonskaya, banned the Mejlis, Crimean Tatars’ representative body in Crimea, labelling it “an extremist organization.” Following the prosecutor’s move, Crimea’s Supreme Court banned the Mejlis on April […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

May 2, 2016

Memo to Europe: Don’t Fall for Russia’s Empty Promises

By Stephen Blank

As of this writing, the “cessation of hostilities” in Syria has all but collapsed, and thousands of Russian forces are aiding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s campaign to retake Aleppo. At the same time, the Minsk II agreement between Russia and Ukraine remains, as it always has been, an agreement more honored in the breach than […]

NATO Russia

SyriaSource

Apr 29, 2016

Syrian Political Transition: Are the Rules Being Bent?

By Frederic C. Hof

UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura recently released a “Mediator’s Summary of the 13-17 April Round of UN Facilitated Intra-Syrian Talks.” It is a thoughtful and thought-provoking document. It appropriately asks far more questions than it answers about political transition in Syria. Even as a regime-Russian military offensive focusing on Aleppo—one targeting civilians and medical […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Apr 29, 2016

US LNG Seen as Fuel for US-EU Energy Security Relationship

By Mitch Hulse and Mikaila Altenbern

The United States will be a reliable supplier of liquefied natural gas to global markets because it is “not only good for our energy security, it is good for the security of our energy partners and allies around the world,” said Robin Dunnigan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Diplomacy at the US State […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

IranSource

Apr 29, 2016

قاچاقچیان مواد مخدر شیوه های تازه ای برای قاچاق مواد مخدر از افغانستان به ایران می یابند

By فاطمه امان

اندکی قرون وسطایی می نماید، اما این شگرد تازه قاچاقچیان مواد مخدر در مناطق مرزی ایران-افغانستان است.   سردار رهام بخش حبیبی فرمانده مرزبانی سیستان و بلوچستان می گوید قاچاقچیان، با استفاده از نوعی منجیق که از آهن های نبشی و تیوب خودرو ساخته شده و قادر است با هر پرتاب یک بسته 10 کیلویی را […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Apr 29, 2016

Zimbabwe in ‘Grave Danger’ of Political Violence

By Kelsey Lilley

Former opposition Member of Parliament cites ‘serious political vacuum’ in the country Zimbabwe is in “grave danger” of political violence and its fractured opposition is “poisoned” because of an undemocratic culture, according to David Coltart, a founding member of the country’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). “There is a very serious […]

Africa

SyriaSource

Apr 29, 2016

As the Truce Wanes, Assad Goes to War Again

By Saleem al-Omar

Ambulances are again wailing across Syria, most recently to care for the bombing victims of a hospital in Aleppo and the al-Zof camps in the Idlib countryside. The Civil Defense moved quickly to transport the injured, while regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs containing poisonous chlorine gas on Jisr al-Shughur city in the Kalasah, Bustan al-Qasr, […]

Syria

IranSource

Apr 29, 2016

Traffickers Find Novel Ways of Smuggling Drugs into Iran from Afghanistan

By Fatemeh Aman

It sounds like something from the Middle Ages but it’s the latest method for drug traffickers along the Iran-Afghanistan border. The commander of Sistan and Baluchestan’s border guard, Raham Bakhsh Habibi, says that drug traffickers are smuggling drugs into Iran by using a catapult made of special metal fixtures and tire tubes that can toss packages weighing 10 […]

Afghanistan Iran