A Russian-backed campaign by the regime is targeting ISIS in the Syrian Badia, where sleeper cells are conducting deadly attacks, according to Zaman al-Wasl. The Russian-backed Syrian regime forces launched a military campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) militants in the Badia desert amid an intensification of attacks on the …

Syria and Iran are deepening economic cooperation, as Iran is about to launch a Syrian-Iranian joint bank, according to Asharq al-Awsat. Syria and Iran reached an agreement to launch a joint free trade zone and bank, the Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Qasemi announced this weekend, in …

Describing his visit to Russia as a milestone in the promotion of ties between Tehran and Moscow, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said cooperation and dialogue between the two states would contribute to regional security. Speaking to reporters before leaving Tehran for Moscow on Wednesday morning, Raisi said he would make …

Reportedly, Russian state energy giant Gazprom said it has not booked any capacity to pump gas to Europe through the Yamal pipeline in February underscoring a sharp drop-off in Russian exports to the region so far this year. Gazprom said pipeline exports of Russian gas have tumbled 41% from a …

The United States is warning Russia that the U.S. and its allies will respond “forcefully and resolutely” to further Russian military aggression against Ukraine but hopes Moscow will pursue a diplomatic path to resolve the crisis, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told VOA in Kyiv Wednesday. “We’ve offered Russia a …

Americans performed three very different policies on the People’s Republic: From a total negation (and the Mao-time mutual annihilation assurances), to Nixon’s sudden cohabitation. Finally, a Copernican-turn: the US spotted no real ideological differences between them and the post-Deng China. This signalled a ‘new opening’: West imagined China’s coastal areas …

Many in the West believe China’s economic ascendancy indicates that Beijing is covertly working to usher in a new world order in which the balance of power has shifted. History shows that changes in the world order are inevitable, but they are not happening as quickly as some analysts think. …

Russian civilisationalism is proving handy as President Vladimir Putin seeks to expand the imaginary boundaries of his Russian World, whose frontiers are defined by Russian speakers and adherents to Russian culture rather than international law and/or ethnicity. Mr. Putin’s disruptive and expansive nationalist ideology has underpinned his aggressive approach to …

How ambitious are Russia’s foreign policy objectives, and how much force does Moscow believe it must employ to achieve them? Moscow has submitted various ultimatums, but the most critical and pressing issue is that the Kremlin now regards Ukraine as a permanently hostile country continuing to increase its defense capabilities. …

Some years ago, in the aftermath of Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea, I noted in this space the precedent set by the West’s support of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008. Kosovo had been part of Serbia and recognized as such in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. …