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MENASource

Feb 1, 2016

Top News: Syria peace talks hit trouble after Damascus blast kills 60

By MENASource

Syria’s main opposition group met UN mediator Staffan de Mistura for the first time on Sunday, but the peace process ran straight into trouble after Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) bombers killed more than 60 people near the country’s holiest Shia shrine.

MENASource

Feb 1, 2016

Top News: Cartoonist Released After One Night in Detention; NGO Founder Detained at Airport

By EgyptSource

Cairo prosecutors ordered on Monday the release of Egyptian cartoonist Islam Gawish without filing charges against him a day after he was arrested. The Ministry of Interior said Gawish, the owner of a satirical caricature Facebook page, was arrested Sunday at the headquarters of the news website, Egypt News Network (ENN), which they raided after […]

MENASource

Feb 1, 2016

EconSource: Baghdad and KRG Agree to Cooperate on Economic Reform

By EconSource

A delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) met Sunday with the Iraqi government and agreed to cooperate on reforms aimed at addressing an acute economic crisis.

UkraineAlert

Feb 1, 2016

Putin Gets It Wrong Again: Eurasian Economic Union Hurts Russia

By Anders Åslund

In June 2009, Vladimir Putin unexpectedly launched the idea of a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan. Soon it was named the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). In September 2013, Armenia agreed to join, and Kyrgyzstan joined in 2015. This is a Russian initiative, dominated by Russia in all regards. Its secretariat is located in Moscow. […]

Russia Ukraine

MENASource

Feb 1, 2016

Can Tourism Save Oman from Cheap Oil?

By Giorgio Cafiero

Of all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, non-OPEC Oman is most vulnerable to low oil prices. In the 1990s, the sultanate discovered that its oil reserves were substantially smaller than previously thought and Oman’s sovereign wealth fund is a fraction of the size of other GCC nations.

International Organizations Politics & Diplomacy

SyriaSource

Jan 30, 2016

Geneva: Pulling in the Same Direction

By Frederic C. Hof

If talks in Geneva under UN auspices between Syrian opposition and regime delegations are to be productive, the United States and its partners simply cannot act as even-handed, disinterested mediators and purveyors of diplomatic good offices, urging—as Secretary of State John Kerry does repeatedly—both sides to negotiate in good faith. This is not the time […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jan 29, 2016

In Putin’s Russia, Intellectuals Trapped in a ‘Zone of Silence’

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Writers debate ‘shrinking’ space for independent media Intellectuals in Russia today suffer a fate that they consider to be worse than death—being forced to remain silent. “Instead of killing us they offer to move us to the zone of complete silence,” said Ilya Danishevsky, Chief Editor of the Vremena Publishing House. While some may view this […]

Russia Ukraine

SyriaSource

Jan 29, 2016

Top News: January 29, 2016

By SyriaSource

Syrian opposition not in Geneva on the day of peace talksStarvation spreads before Syria peace talksIran coerces Afghans to fight in Syria, according to HRWSyrian Kurds plan attack to seal Turkish border

Syria

MENASource

Jan 29, 2016

Top News: Syrian opposition not in Geneva on the day of peace talks

By MENASource

UN officials said Syrian peace talks will begin in Geneva as planned Friday, despite an ongoing boycott by the main Syrian opposition group, which continues to stay away pending assurances from the UN chief on the implementation of Security Council resolutions related to humanitarian issues.

MENASource

Jan 29, 2016

A US War Resolution Against ISIS, Revisited

By Daniel R. DePetris

On December 6, 2015 President Barack Obama spoke to millions of Americans in a nationally televised address on the progress that has been made in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) in both Iraq and Syria.

Iraq Syria
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