July, 2022

• 10 July

  Lebanese Minister Insists on Repatriation Plan, Visit to Syria Soon

  

  The UN has rejected the plan by the Lebanese government, according to al-Souria Net. Lebanese caretaker Minister of Displaced Persons, Issam Sharaf al-Din, said that Lebanon is determined to move forward with plans to repatriate Syrian refugees currently residing in Lebanon. On Wednesday, the Lebanese government news service the National …

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• 10 July

  Cavusoglu, Lavrov discuss Ukraine, food security ahead of G20 meeting

  

  Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov have a thorough exchange of views on international and regional affairs with particular emphasis on the situation in Ukraine. Turkish and Russian foreign ministers have held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 ministerial meeting in Bali, …

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• 10 July

  Elective Affinities: Iran, India and China’s Responses to the Ukraine War

  

  Iran, India and China have found themselves dragged into the crisis in Ukraine, as their wagons remain hitched to the invading power for complicated reasons. 'Sooner or later Russia will be back, and we do not know what kind of Russia that will be. It may fall subject to some …

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• 10 July

  NATO Must Back Lithuania Against Russian Coercion

  

  Increasing provocations from Moscow in response to Lithuania’s decision to enforce sanctions on goods transiting its territory need to be dealt with strongly by the Alliance. At last month’s summit, NATO promised to improve its military readiness in the future. But storm clouds are gathering over the Baltics right now. …

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• 10 July

  Lebanon: Collapse, Uncertainty, Rejuvenation – or the Next Big War?

  

  It could get much worse, and more violent, before it gets better. Lebanon has never been in a worse state outside wartime. Historically unstable by imperial design, its region is now rocked by the same waves of strategic competition, destabilisation and malign influence as the rest of the developing world. …

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• 10 July

  Russian Ruble Drops 17% Amid Falling Exports, Rumored Intervention

  

  The Russian ruble extended a recent slump Thursday, declining 17% against the U.S. dollar in 48 hours to reach its lowest level since late May. The ruble hit 64.5 against the greenback during morning trading on the Moscow Exchange as the Russian authorities apparently intervened in currency markets to stop …

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• 10 July

  Lavrov Walks Out of G20 Talks as West Presses Moscow on Ukraine

  

  Russia’s top diplomat stormed out of talks with G20 foreign ministers meeting in Indonesia on Friday as Western powers criticized Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. Washington and allies condemned Russia’s assault ahead of the meeting before Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov faced what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called …

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• 10 July

  Putin Orders Advance to Continue After Russia Takes Ukraine’s Lysychansk

  

  President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia will continue pressing forward in eastern Ukraine after Kyiv ordered its forces to retreat from the strategic city of Lysychansk and Russian officials claimed control over the entirety of Ukraine’s Luhansk region. “Military units … must carry out their tasks according to previously …

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• 10 July

  Iraq—and the West—Haven’t Finished the Job of Defeating ISIS

  

  The Islamic State, or ISIS, made global headlines recently on account of two significant developments in Syria: a prison uprising in Hasakeh in late January and the raid by U.S. special operations forces a week later, on Feb. 3, that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi …

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• 10 July

  Punishing Assad Shouldn’t Stand in the Way of Helping Syrians

  

  Normalization of diplomatic ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad raises troubling questions for humanists who are also realists. When an evil regime wins a bloody war that allows it stay in power, how can a liberal-democratic state express solidarity for victims of that regime’s brutality without engaging in fantasy politics? …

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