Why Would Turkey Want to Secure Afghanistan’s International Airport?

by Ahmed E. Souaiaia* About six months after the inauguration of the Biden administration, nearly 90% of the US fighting troops are pulled out of Afghanistan. The vacuum was filled immediately by Taliban forces who claimed that they now control 85% of the country. After having spent nearly three trillion dollars on the invasion of Read more

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Will Zarif’s surprise G7 visit help resolve row?

by Xu Hailin, based on conversations with Li Weijian, a senior research fellow with the Center for West Asian and African Studies Iran has been striving to overcome the crisis in its relations with the US. Although the Islamic Republic has taken some tough steps, such as shooting down a US military drone in June Read more

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Could the Cessation of Hostilities help U.S. and Russia overcome their differences on Syria?

by Ahmed E. Souaiaia*   ISIL fighters It is evident at this point that Syria’s war is not a civil war. It is a world war and now the two superpowers, the U.S. and Russia emerged out of the shadows of their regional allies to take charge. Early this year, the two countries reached an Read more

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Iran P5+1 nuclear deal: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — JCPOA (full text) — page 11

1.       5.                     Other trade measures 5.1.                        The United States commits to: [11] 5.1.1. Allow for the sale of commercial passenger aircraft and related parts and services to Iran by licensing the (i) export, re-export, sale, lease or transfer to Iran of commercial passenger aircraft for exclusively civil aviation end-use, (ii) export, re-export, sale, lease Read more

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Iran P5+1 nuclear deal: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — JCPOA (full text) — page 13

D. Nuclear Safety, Safeguards and Security 8.     Nuclear safety E3/EU+3 parties, and possibly other states, as appropriate, are prepared to cooperate with Iran to establish a Nuclear Safety Centre in Iran, engage in workshops and training events in Iran to support interactions between Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities and those from the E3/EU+3 and elsewhere to, Read more

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Geneva-1 Final communiqué of the Action Group for Syria; and the basis for Geneva-2 meeting

Geneva-1 was a meeting called by the Peace Envoy Lakdar Brahimi, 14 foreign ministers and heads of intergovernmental organizations attended. At the conclusion of that meeting, they issued a statement, which was then used as the basis for Geneva-2, which brought together, for the fist time, representatives of the Syrian government and representatives of one Read more

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Deficiencies in the arguments for a U.S. war on Syria and the perils of military intervention in Syria without UNSC authorization

by Ahmed E. Souaiaia* UNSC Answering a reporter’s question if bombing Syria is needed in order to preserve his credibility since he was the one who set a red line, President Obama replied: “First of all, I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line. The world set a red line when Read more

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