With Iraq’s vote on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States less than 24 hours away. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is doing everything he can to shore up support for the floundering deal, which many in the Iraqi government see as a great victory for their negotiation process. Yet with Pentagon officials [...]
President-elect Barack Obama is set to announce his national-security team early next week, and reports from officials suggest that none of the appointees will do anything to stem the growing disquiet among antiwar activists about the hawkish composition of Obama’s team. Besides making official the already widely reported appointment of Hillary Clinton as the next [...]
The Iraqi Parliament is scheduled to vote on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States sometime tomorrow, but before that happens aides to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are holding a last ditch round of press conferences to shore up support for the controversial pact. And the SOFA needs all the help [...]
During a visit to NATO headquarters, Pakistani Senate Defense Committee Chairman Nisar Memon brought up the issue of the US unilateral drone strikes into Pakistan, warning that they are damaging the reputation of not just the US, but its allies in the Afghan war as well. Sen. Memon says the NATO officials unequivocally insisted there [...]
Amid several bellicose comments about the possibility of an impending Israeli strike against Iran Israeli Defense Ministry officials say they have been contacted by US officials who have asked them to refrain from launching any attacks against Iran until after President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January. Likewise, the officials reportedly have cautioned Israel not [...]
The IAEA released a report on its investigation into allegations regarding Syria on Wednesday. The verdict was inconclusive, they found no definitive evidence of any wrongdoing but called for future investigations. Nevertheless, unproven accusations were sufficient for the United States and the European Union to call for the suspension of IAEA aid to Syria. At [...]
The upper echelon of Pakistan’s military has a long history of close ties with the United States, and today that is no different. But from the Pressler Amendment of the 1980s to the controversial policy of unilateral US drone strikes today, US policy over the past two decades have increasingly distanced Pakistan’s younger officers from [...]
In a conference today in Damascus about security in Iraq, western officials praised Syria for its efforts to prevent foreign fighters from infiltrating into Iraq. The United States Charge d’Affaires however, condemned the host country, accusing them of “giving safe haven to terrorists” and demanded that they take action against the “terrorist networks.” In its [...]
A Saturday phone call between President-elect Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai has yielded, according to President Karzai, a firm commitment to make Afghanistan and the “region” a top priority in the incoming Obama Administration. The “region” appears to be a reference to Pakistan. The move hardly comes as a surprise, with Obama having [...]
After a reported shooting near a motorcade taking Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and visiting Polish President Lech Kaczynski to the Ossetian border, the Georgian government issued a statement claiming Russian soldiers fired the shots from 30 meters away. President Saakashvili said the attack was aimed at the two leaders, and underscored the “unpredictable people” the [...]
