Greater Middle East
Kurds and Assad in race for Raqqa
Russian and US warplanes are each backing rival sides as the Assad regime and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces race to take the ISIS "capital" of Raqqa.
Tag: Great Game
Iraq
Syria: Kurdish feminist leads anti-ISIS offensive
Rojda Felat, a Kurdish revolutionary feminist, is leading the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces' offensive on Raqqa, capital of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate.
Greater Middle East
Aleppo and Cizre: fearful symmetry
Supposed antagonists Assad and Erdogan are both in the process of reducing cities to rubble: Aleppo and Cizre, both with the connivance of the Great Powers.
Afghanistan
Mullah Mansour death: blow to Pakistan?
The killing of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike actually took place in Pakistan—without consent of Islamabad, signaling a break between the two allies.
Greater Middle East
Syria: world betrays Aleppo (of course)
As Assad regime and Russian air-strikes continue on the beseiged populace of Aleppo, media in the West increasingly echo regime propaganda of justified "counter-attacks."
Planet Watch
A ‘New Oil Order’?
Experts declare a "new oil order" in which hydrocarbons will lose market share to renewables. But is it market conditions or geopolitics that explain the current price slump?
Greater Middle East
More Green Berets to Syria: on whose side?
Obama is to mobilize 250 troops to Syria, helping Arab militias fight ISIS. Will these militias be brought under the Kurdish-led coalition—or will the Kurds be isolated to appease Turkey?
Greater Middle East
Revolution in Syria and Turkey: mutual betrayal?
One of the greatest tragedies on the global stage now is that revolutions are going on in both Syria and Turkey—and they are being pitted against each other in the Great Game.
The Caucasus
Nagorno-Karabakh in Russo-Turkish game
As the worst fighting since a 1994 truce breaks out in Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey’s President Erdogan asserts himself as protector of Azerbaijan, pledging to back Baku “to the end.” (Map: Wikipedia)
Greater Middle East
Syria: CIA-armed rebels vs. Pentagon-armed rebels?
Is the Kurdish-Arab fighting in northern Syria pitting the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces against FSA-aligned Islamist factions armed by the CIA?
Greater Middle East
Syrian Kurds declare autonomy —at what price?
Kurds officially declared their own "Federation of Northern Syria"—to be swiftly denounced by the Assad regime, the opposition and regional powers alike.
Greater Middle East
Obama-Putin deal for partition of Syria?
The announced Russian military withdrawal from Syria has raised suspicions of a quiet deal between Putin and Obama for the partitiion of country into "spheres of influence."