(January 10,2025)
North Korea has so far been largely silent on the domestic turmoil that took hold of South Korea after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law last year. However, the US is of the view that Pyongyang could exploit this internal chaos
(January 7, 2025)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken — who was in Seoul this week for meetings as though nothing unusual had happened — released a readout that made no mention of South Korea’s political situation. His response to a direct question about the U.S. position on Yoon’s actions vaguely referenced private intergovernmental discussions before pivoting to boilerplate about democratic resilience. Despite a shocking breach of liberal democracy, Seoul has faced the bare minimum of consequences from its supposed “democratic values-based partner.” Why?
(December 16, 2024)
President Yoon Suk Yeol has changed the course of South Korea’s diplomacy like no leader before him. He put his country in lock step with the United States by countering North Korea with sanctions and joint military drills. He won Washington’s plaudits when he overcame a century of historical grievances Koreans held against Japan and helped lay the ground for trilateral cooperation to deter China.
He sang the praises of Western values such as freedom.
Eleven air raids hit the Yemeni capital Sanaa, including the vicinity of Al-Sabeen Square, where around one million people were taking part in a weekly pro-Palestine march.
The Harf Sufyan District was hit by 12 airstrikes in the Amran Governorate of northern Yemen, while six hit the Hodeidah port west of the country. One strike also targeted the Ras Issa port north of Hodeidah.
The main power station in Haziz, south of Sanaa, was struck as well.
Aoun’s election happened only after former Interior Minister Suleiman Frangieh, the main alternative candidate, withdrew and endorsed Aoun.
Electing a president requires a two-thirds majority of parliament, which was met after Frangieh’s endorsement gave Aoun the support of Hezbollah and Amal Movements. Many media reports see Aoun’s election as a sign of Hezbollah’s weakness, despite most Hezbollah MPs supporting him.
Securing 99 of the Lebanese parliament’s 128 votes, Aoun garnered widespread support across Lebanon’s political spectrum, despite initial reservations from Hezbollah and its allies.
While political statements from Aoun are rare, he recently emerged as the US and Saudi Arabia’s favoured candidate for the Lebanese presidency.
The local and international push gathered momentum following Israel’s two-month offensive in Lebanon last year, which killed over 4,000 people and displaced over a million.
After the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020, countries friendly to Lebanon diverted their aid to the military, claiming that they only rely on the army to distribute it. Therefore, all the aid, estimated at tens of millions of dollars, was directed directly to the army and was at Aoun’s disposal and under his direct management. It appears that the military establishment has effectively managed the funds and has never experienced a shortage due to corruption.
The US has told Lebanese officials that Saudi Arabia is prepared to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars to reconstruct their war-torn country if Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun is elected president, one senior Arab official and one former senior US official told Middle East Eye.
“But what happened was that the Iranians told Bashar al-Assad, ‘we did not receive any signals to proceed with moving Iranian aircraft to the Hmeimim base [or to] fly through Iraqi airspace to land at the base,’” Saqr told Mazeej.
“The question was relayed to Moscow, but no answer came.”
When asked whether this was a “trick by Putin”, Saqr said there was “no other explanation”.
Saqr said the Iranians told Assad they sent a plane regardless through Iraq, but were warned by the US that the aircraft would be shot down if it continued.
The „Committee for the Evaluation of the Defense Establishment Budget and the Balance of Power“ is led by former National Security Council head Yaakov Nagel, and is often referred to in Hebrew media as the Nagel Commission or Nagel Committee.
The commission was established in 2023 before the outbreak of the war, to create recommendations for the defense ministry regarding the possible areas of conflict facing Israel in the years ahead.
The Nagel Committee issued a report on Monday detailing the defence budget and security strategy, where they raised concerns over Turkey’s aspirations and possible future tensions with Israel, according to Israeli media.
The committee said these tensions could escalate into conflict and highlighted the risk of Syrian factions aligning with Turkey and creating further threats to Israel‘s „security“.
(January 3. 2025)
Although the majority of high-ranking officials in the HTS-led administration refrain from making categorical claims about Israel, they constantly stress that Iran and Hezbollah, not Israel, are Syria’s main enemies.
(…)
Ayman Al-Asimi, a senior member of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) and former spokesperson for the Syrian opposition delegations during the Astana talks, made headlines with his remarks to BBC Arabic. He stated unequivocally that Syria’s only opponent is Iran.
(December 12, 2024)
In 2003, he went to Iraq to fight against American forces. After three years of war, he was captured by the U.S. military and spent over five years in prison, including a stint at the notorious Abu Ghraib torture center.
While in Iraq, Jolani fought with ISIS and was even a deputy to its founder. Immediately upon release in 2011, ISIS sent him to Syria with a rumored $1 billion to found the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda and participate in the armed protest movement against Assad that arose out of the Arab Spring.
Israel may have backed that regime change, but it’s not stopping them from attacking Syria every chance they get. (…)
Israel used the regime change as a pretext to seize substantial land in the demilitarized zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria. Since then they’ve moved deeper into Syria, and Wednesday they reached the al-Mantara Dam in Quneitra Province.
The dam is the largest in southern Syria, and gives them effective control over the six major sources of fresh water in southern Syria. They have also recently taken the al-Wahda Dam along the Yarmouk River Basin.
(January 4, 2025)
However, despite its $551 million budget and a contingent of over 10,000 personnel, UNIFIL has now become symbolic of the United Nations’ broader peacekeeping failures.
This is because, instead of curbing instability as it was tasked, UNIFIL’s presence has inadvertently facilitated Hezbollah’s military buildup, making southern Lebanon a launching pad for attacks on Israel and a stronghold of Iranian influence. As the war unfolds, it is becoming even clearer that UNIFIL’s mission has failed, and its continued presence serves no constructive purpose.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as Unifil, accused the Israeli military on Saturday f destroying a blue barrel marking the border between Israel and Lebanon, as well as a Lebanese army observation tower.
“This morning peacekeepers observed an IDF bulldozer destroying a blue barrel marking the line of withdrawal between Lebanon and Israel in Labbouneh, as well as an observation tower belonging to the Lebanese Armed Forces immediately beside a UNIFIL position there,” Unifil said.
Baerbock and her French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot visited Syria in a sign of support for the transitional government, where they expressed willingness to help the war-torn country after Bashar al-Assad’s regime was toppled last month, making them the first European officials to do so.
Syria‘s new de facto ruler and leader of the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) received an EU delegation led by German Foreign Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Friday.
Syrian sources told Reuters that the foreign fighters appointed to the military include Uyghurs, a Jordanian, a Turk, and an Albanian. “This is a small token of recognition for the sacrifices Islamist jihadists gave to our struggle for freedom from Assad’s oppression,” an HTS source told the media outlet.
(…)
HTS is still designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization, but the Biden administration has celebrated its takeover of Syria. The US has also made clear it’s willing to work with the new government and its de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who has been going by his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The military operation’s scale and focus raise pressing questions about Israel’s intentions and its long-term impact on Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Analysts have drawn comparisons to the chaos seen in Iraq after the US-led invasion and Libya’s fragmented post-Gaddafi reality.
Israel’s occupation of additional Syrian territories near the Golan Heights compounds this uncertainty.
(April 9, 2024)
Western governments could once be confident of protecting their friends. Nicaragua’s case shows those days are gone
(June 28, 2008)
Durch das aggressiv-expansionistische Ausdehnen der Westblöcke EU und NATO bis an die eigenen Grenzen hat man offenbar gelernt in den Denkfabriken um den neuen Präsidenten Russlands. Man sieht die „globale Situation diktiert von rigiden Regeln“ und rechnet offenbar mit drei strategischen Entwicklungsmodellen:
1. Die Schaffung eines Eurasien Orwell´schen Ausmasses, in der Vision dreier totalitärer Blöcke aus „1984“ (siehe Grafik oben)
2. Einen Deal mit NATO und EU, vielleicht sogar mit dem gesamten Shanghai-Pakt, zur Schaffung eines Superimperiums auf der Nordhälfte des Planeten. Dies käme praktisch einer Weltregierung gleich.
3. Eine Konfrontation zwischen Shanghai-Pakt einerseits und USA, NATO und EU andererseits.
Die Völker, die Demokratien, die Republiken, die Öffentlichkeit, die Verfassungen, sie spielen auf diesem planetaren Schachbrett nicht die geringste Rolle, für keine der imperialen Plutokratien und Apparate, weder in Russland, noch in der EU und schon gar nicht in der NATO.
(December 3, 2024)
For many years, Putin has publicly questioned the Ukrainian nation’s right to exist. He has repeatedly stated that he sees today’s independent Ukraine as an artificial state, and regards all those who disagree with this verdict as anti-Russian forces or outright Nazis. For more than a decade, he has sought to turn this toxic vision into reality via an escalating campaign of military aggression.
The final outcome in Syria appears stark: Assad’s regime has fallen, and the Syrian army has been entirely dismantled—an unprecedented event even compared to the 1967 war. Israel now firmly controls the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. Turkish forces have seized more than 13 cities, cementing their influence. The United States has solidified its presence in oil-rich regions while extending legal protection to the Kurds and the SDF.
(December 19, 2024)
“They did not tell us how it would happen,” Bashar al-Mashadani, an RCA commander, told The Telegraph. “We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.’ But they did not say when or where, they just told us to be ready.”
In October, the US brought several other Sunni Muslim militias under the command of the RCA, swelling the force from 800 fighters to about 3,000. All of the fighters are armed by the US, and the US pays their salaries of $400 per month.
(December 18, 2024)
RCA fighters who captured the Russian-controlled Syrian air base on the outskirts of the town last week said they had been told to prepare for Assad’s possible fall in early November, nearly three weeks before the offensive began.
Until one month earlier, Capt Mashadani had been second-in-command of the Abu Khatab brigade. This small unit of 150 men was created by US Special Forces and trained by their British counterparts in Jordan until 2016, to hunt down Isis fighters near Deir ez-Zor, a city in eastern Syria.
(December 20, 2024)
The Israeli army claimed that soldiers opened fire in accordance with open-fire procedures, shooting one protester in the leg.
Israel‘s recent actions include extending its control in the occupied Golan Heights and advancing to within 25 kilometers of the capital, Damascus.
Julani fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq against American soldiers during the Iraq War. He then founded al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusra Front. In recent years, he has attempted to soften his image by giving friendly interviews to Western journalists, often appearing in a suit and with a trimmed beard to obscure his jihadist ideology.
Leaf said of Julani after the meeting, who is also going by Ahmad al-Sharaa, “I heard him on his priorities, which are very much rooted in getting Syria on the road to economic recovery.”
“We’ve been hearing this for some time, some very pragmatic and moderate statements on various issues, from women’s rights to protection to equal rights for all communities,” she added. “It was a good first meeting. We will judge by deeds, not just by words.”
„Als Gegenleistung für ihre Unterstützung und ihr Geld, so sagte mir der Israeli, würden die Vereinigten Staaten der saudischen Führung ein erweitertes Verteidigungsabkommen anbieten, das Saudi-Arabien in ihren nuklearen Schutzschirm einbeziehen würde – für den Fall, dass der Iran, Israels letzter verbliebener Feind, in den Besitz einer Atombombe gelangen sollte. “
(…)
„Der Israeli sagte mir, dass das saudische Paket einen zusätzlichen Anreiz enthält: Die Saudis würden wegschauen, wenn die Israelis Bombenangriffe durchführen, einschließlich der Bombardierung militärischer Ziele im zerrissenen Syrien, und würden Israel Zugang zu einem Flugplatz innerhalb der saudischen Grenzen gewähren. Auf diese Weise könnten israelische Bomben, die zumeist von den Vereinigten Staaten geliefert werden, innerhalb von Minuten, nicht Stunden, auf wichtige iranische Ziele abgefeuert werden.“
(December 16, 2023)
Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.
Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.
In return for its support and money, the Israeli told me, the Saudi leadership would be offered an expanded defense treaty by the United States that would include Saudi Arabia in its nuclear umbrella—its zone of protection—in case Iran, Israel’s last standing enemy, were to acquire a nuclear bomb.
(…)
There is an added inducement in the Saudi package, the Israeli told me: the Saudis would look the other way as the Israelis conduct bombing raids, including bombing of military targets inside fractured Syria, and would give Israel access to an airfield within Saudi borders. This would bring Israeli bombs, most supplied by the United States, within minutes, and not hours, of key Iranian targets.
(December 18, 2024)
Israel and Saudi Arabia have reached a breakthrough in talks around normalising relations, Haaretz reported on Tuesday, adding that the normalisation could be related to an elusive ceasefire deal that would bring about an end to Israel‘s war on Gaza.
Sources familiar with the negotiations told Haaretz that rather than Israel agreeing to Saudi Arabia‘s demand for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the two sides agreed that Israel would give a vague commitment on a „path towards Palestinian statehood“.
The State Department said early Friday that three senior American diplomats had arrived in Damascus, the capital of Syria, to meet with leaders of the militias that have seized control of the country, and to look for signs of the journalist Austin Tice and other missing U.S. citizens.
Turkey and their allies, collectively known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), hold territory in Syria’s northeast, but have gained considerable influence having backed the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the takeover of most of the country. HTS officials are already suggesting that stamping out Kurdish separatists is a near-term goal, and that Turkish involvement in Syria’s reconstruction is a priority.
US officials have been trying to reassure the Kurds that they don’t face any immediate threats to existence from Turkey’s allies, despite Turkish officials saying the “elimination” of the SDF’s largest faction, the YPG, is their strategic goal.
(December 19, 2024)
There is no talk of a ceasefire deal between Turkey and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, contrary to a U.S. announcement, a Turkish defence ministry official said on Thursday.
The State Department had said…
Und was Israel angeht – auf kurze Sicht profitiert es wohl davon. Israel hat die Situation dazu genutzt, mehr Land zu besetzen, angeblich Waffenlager zerstört. Aber ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass ein islamischer Staat auf längere Sicht gut für Israel ist.
Vor einem guten Jahr hat sich in der israelischen Führung ein riesiger Wandel vollzogen. Ein wichtiges Ziel dieser neuen Strömung: Es darf keinen Palästinenserstaat geben. Man will einen durch und durch jüdischen Staat. Israels Bevölkerung ist zerrissen, was diese Themen angeht, fast am Rande eines Bürgerkrieges. Netanjahu ist autoritärer denn je, er hat alles persönlich unter Kontrolle.
Und es hat sich noch etwas drastisch verändert: Die Israelis in den 70er- und 80er-Jahren waren säkulare Europäer, diese Menschen an der Regierung heute sind alttestamentarisch. Sie sind nicht der Logik und der Ratio zugänglich, sondern sie fühlen sich ihrer quasi biblischen Vision verpflichtet. Da ist magisches Denken am Werk.
(…)
Für mich ist das eine Art geopolitisches Schneeballsystem. Netanjahu setzt alles daran, die Kämpfe am Laufen zu halten – würde man innehalten und das Ganze hinterfragen, würde das System kollabieren wie bei einem Schneeballsystem.
Since Assad’s downfall, the US, Turkey, and Israel have all been bombing Syria. On December 8, the day Assad fled, the US launched heavy airstrikes in Syria, saying it hit 75 ISIS-related targets.
US officials justify the strikes by saying they don’t want ISIS to reconstitute itself following the regime change. But on the other hand, the US has supported the HTS takeover even though the group is designated by the US as a terrorist organization and has a similar ideology to ISIS.
The US has also made clear it has no intention of withdrawing the approximately 900 troops that it has occupying eastern Syria.
Germany plans talks with representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said, joining the United States and Britain in establishing contact with the group after it led the overthrow of Syria‘s Bashar al-Assad.
Israeli armoured vehicles on Tuesday entered the vicinity of Saida al-Golan, a village south of the Quneitra governorate, according to local media reports.
The area is beyond the disengagement line between Israel and Syria that was agreed in 1974.
In a significant development, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced that the bloc‘s top diplomat for Syria will head to Damascus on Monday to initiate contact with the new Syrian government.
„Using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and, of course, intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to.“
On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has had direct contact with HTS.
“Earlier today, an Israeli fighter jet carried out an airstrike on radars in Deir Ezzor Military Airport,” it said.
“Moreover, an anonymous explosion took place at the only bridge on Euphrates River that connects between the city and Hatla Village, which is one of the seven villages in SDF-held areas.”
Israeli military aircraft carried out a series of powerful airstrikes on military targets in the Syrian port city of Tartus, home to an important Russian naval base and ship repair facility, on the night of 15-16 December.
“Strengthening the Golan is strengthening the State of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold onto it, cause it to blossom, and settle in it,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Since Islamist rebels overthrew the decades-long Assad family regime on Dec. 8, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes across Syria and carried out a land incursion that stretches past the occupied Golan Heights into a previously demilitarized buffer zone.