Latest Developments Iran is employing a network of militants, criminals, and intelligence operatives to smuggle weapons into the West Bank, The New York Times reported on April 9. A group of unnamed Iranian, American, and Israeli officials told the Times that Tehran is running two routes across the Middle East …

Serbia recorded the biggest drop in results in the Freedom House report “Nations in Transition 2023”, which covers 29 European and Asian countries. Freedom House states that Serbia experienced a historic decline due to the efforts of President Aleksandar Vučić to consolidate power in 2023. “Two consecutive mass murders in …

In addition to the lack of political will on the part of Kosovo and Serbia to implement the agreement reached in the dialogue, analysts believe that Brussels has also proved unable to push forward the level of achievement agreed upon in the Brussels-Ohrid Agreement. In the absence of progress in …

IRGC Navy Commander Rear Adm. Ali Reza Tangsiri implicitly threatened the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during an interview with Lebanese Hezbollah-controlled media on April 9, likely to pressure the UAE to sever ties with Israel.[i] Tangsiri issued a series of threatening messages, all of which appear aimed at the UAE, …

The Syrian regime’s control over southern Syria in 2018 did not end the popular movement that began in 2011, which called for the overthrow of the regime and led Syrians to take up arms against the Syrian military machine that tried to suppress the movement. At the same time, a …

Since the Islamic State fell, tens of thousands of people—many of them children—have been herded into Al-Hol, a giant fenced-in camp in Syria, and effectively given life sentences. The dead turned up everywhere. Two decapitated corpses in a cesspit. The remains of a woman with a pierced skull. A child …

The Syrian Civil War was the longest and most complex geo-political conflict to emerge out of the Arab Spring, thus creating a complicated legacy for leftist analysts to interrogate. In this interview, exclusive for Counterpunch, former United Nations special rapporteur, and international relations scholar Richard Falk, breaks down Palestine and …

Israel is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to global terrorism. In the 1990s, after the Oslo Accords, when Palestinians resorted to suicide bombings, the world largely ignored them, blamed Israel, and failed to see these attacks as an ominous portent. Just a few years later, the …

For the United States, foreign policy has always been a mix of securing interests and promoting values, and India checks the box on multiple counts. Washington and New Delhi routinely highlight that the world’s oldest democracy, the United States, is cooperating with the world’s largest democracy, India. Partnering with India …

Georgia’s ruling party is pushing ahead with plans to pass legislation tightening restrictions on civil society, despite widespread domestic alarm along with expressions of concern from the EU and US. The new law mirrors earlier draft legislation that was shelved in spring 2023 following widespread protests and comes as the …