Putting two and two together, Mohammad Javad Zarif's recent travels and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's recent chat with Saudi FM Adel al-Jubeir point to a coordinated push by Bashar al-Assad's two biggest allies, Russia and Iran, to follow-up the nuclear deal by recharging some kind of peace process in Syria. In fact, Zarif is … Continue reading Tag team effort

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is on a bit of a diplomacy jag in the aftermath of reaching the nuclear agreement with the P5+1. On Tuesday and Wednesday he was in Lebanon, where he met with Lebanese Prime Minister (and acting President, on account of they don't currently have one) Tammam Salam and other … Continue reading Is Iran pushing a diplomatic solution for Syria?

It's not often you get a raw look at what center-right upper-class technocrats really think of the rest of us, so we should thank the Chicago Tribune for providing us with one: A member of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board wrote Thursday that she is praying for a storm that will transform Chicago — similar … Continue reading A rare look behind the curtain

Two years ago today, at least 817 Egyptian protesters were massacred by their own government in what Human Rights Watch's Executive Director, Kenneth Roth, has called "one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history." This is what it looked like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtFM9L6ago The people who had encamped in the … Continue reading Two years later, Rabaa still defines Sisi’s Egypt

ISIS has been carrying out terrorist attacks all over Iraq as the military operation to drive them out of Anbar Province has gotten underway, but none of them have been as devastating as the one that was carried out earlier today in Baghdad's majority Shiʿa Sadr City area: At least 76 people were killed and … Continue reading In Baghdad, a huge explosion of the intended variety

Speaking of America's close Turkish ally, apparently whatever leeway they bought themselves at that NATO Article 4 meeting a couple of weeks ago has run out, as far as some folks in the Pentagon are concerned: A senior U.S. official said Turkey gave American officials assurances last week that it planned to wrap up attacks … Continue reading Time for another NATO Article 4 meeting

Negotiations between Turkey's plurality Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) haven't been able to produce an agreement on forming a coalition government. The two parties reportedly differed on foreign policy and the role that President Tayyip Erdoğan should play in directly governing the country, among other issues, and … Continue reading Turkey’s election was so nice, they’re about to do it twice

MIA Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri sends proof of life: Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has pledged allegiance to the new Afghan Taliban chief in an audio message posted online. The pledge to Mullah Akhtar Mansour was issued by al-Qaeda's media arm al-Sahab and was Zawahiri's first message since September last year. The chances that Zawahiri was … Continue reading Back among the living