Category: Blogs

What did Obama’s Summit with Gulf Partners Achieve?

Officials of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), wrapping up a May 14 summit at Camp David, endorsed US President Barack Obama’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran saying a “comprehensive, verifiable” accord is in their security interests. But in reality, the much-publicized gathering turned out to be “much ado about very little”—and Gulf states are […]

EconSource: Abu Dhabi Pivots to Asian Partners in $22 Billion Oil Push

By EconSource

Abu Dhabi, with 6 percent of global crude reserves, selected GS Energy Corporation of South Korea to join Japan’s Inpex Corporation as the second Asian partner in the Persian Gulf emirate’s biggest onshore oil concession.

Top News: ‘Hard’ to Guarantee Completely Transparent Election says Election Committee Member

By EgyptSource

Spokesperson for the High Elections Committee (HEC) Omar Marwan said on Wednesday that it’s “hard” for any elections supervision committee to guarantee completely transparent parliamentary elections.

Turkey May Acknowledge the Past, But Not Yet

By Piotr Zalewski

Only a decade earlier, it would have been an unimaginable sight. On April 24, more than a thousand people crowded Istanbul’s biggest pedestrian street to hold a vigil commemorating the centenary of the 1915 massacres of 600,000 to 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians.

TTIP Action | May 14

By Global Business & Economics Program

Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci and European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström hold a press conference following their meeting at the European Commission in Brussels, on May 12, 2015 Speeches & Official Announcements EU Trade Policy: Driven by People’s Needs, Responding to their Concerns “TTIP will help us strengthen our ties in order to make […]

Turkey Will Lead NATO Spearhead Force in 2021

By Sevil Erkuş, Hurriyet Daily News

NATO has welcomed Turkey’s offer to assume the responsibility of forming a spearhead unit as part of the alliance’s high readiness force in 2021.

Poland Considering Formal Request for Permanent NATO Bases

By Wiktor Szary, Reuters

Poland and the Baltic states said on Thursday they were seeking permanent NATO deployments on their soil to counter increased Russian military activity, and a Polish internal document suggested the matter may be raised at a Warsaw summit next year.

Top News: Iraq Ministry Says an ISIS Leader Killed

By MENASource

Iraq’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday the second most senior member of the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) had been killed in a coalition airstrike on a mosque where he was meeting with other militants in the north of the country.

Top News: Leading Muslim Brotherhood Figure Dies in Jail

By EgyptSource

A senior Muslim Brotherhood official died in Egypt on Wednesday after more than a year in detention, the interior ministry said in a statement. Farid Ismail, a former lawmaker and official in the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Brotherhood’s political arm, died in a Cairo hospital of liver failure aged 58, medical and police […]

A New Sinai Battle? Bedouin Tribes and Egypt’s ISIS Affiliate

By Mokhtar Awad and Mostafa Abdou

Recent developments in Sinai have once again raised the specter of a “tribal awakening” to rid the region of jihadists. Talk in recent years of armed tribal action against jihadists is not new and has generally gone nowhere, but a number of dynamics may make this moment different. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, (ABM), an Islamic State […]