The Iraqi Parliament failed once again today to elect a new speaker, sounding a somewhat sour note as the government attempts to tout the relative success of its provincial elections on the international scene. The parliament has been practically without a speaker since December 17 of last year, when an argument over shoe-throwing journalist Muntadar [...]
In an interview today with Suddeutsche Zeitung, Iranian parliament speaker Larijani said that the Iranian government was “ready to talk without pre-conditions” with the United States, adding that he believes the nuclear issue is not unsolvable. However, Larijani says the for the talks to be possible, the United States would have to make some sort [...]
NATO Supreme Commander General John Craddock made headlines recently when a leaked classified “guidance” document showed he urged NATO commanders operating in Afghanistan to kill anyone involved in the drug trade in Afghanistan, whether or not they were involved in the insurgency in any way. Gen. Craddock’s longstanding efforts to transform the war in Afghanistan [...]
The presumptive key to Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s ability to credibly form a coalition government (assuming he is not able to put together his unity government) has been a right-far-right coalition. Polls suggest that Likud, Shas, and Yisrael Beiteinu would have virtually the number of seats needed to form a coalition by themselves. But those [...]
The national security team in Afghanistan gave a grim assessment of the war in Afghanistan today, pointing to the growing strength of the Taliban and the long, difficult struggle ahead. CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, a long time advocate of the proposed military surge in Afghanistan, warned of a “downward spiral of security,” declaring that [...]
The controversial booklet distributed to Israeli soldiers during the Gaza invasion by chief Israeli military rabbi Brigadier General Avichai Rontzki was “unsuitable for military publication,” according to the Israeli Defense Ministry. In a letter to opposition MP Avshalom Vilan, an attorney for the Defense Ministry tried to minimize the seriousness however, claiming the book was [...]
While the United States has continued to express hope that it would retain its base outside of Bishkek, the government of Kyrgyzstan has reiterated that their decision to oust the US from the base is final, and that there are no discussions on them keeping the base. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed “regret” [...]
The Israeli elections are just three days away now, and the polls show a continuing trend: the Yisrael Beiteinu party of Avigdor Lieberman is gaining by leaps and bounds, and his gain is narrowing the gap between the frontrunning Likud Party and the Kadima Party. The surge has put presumptive next Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [...]
The civilian death toll in Afghanistan continued to rise today as US forces launched an overnight operation killing six men in Zabul. The military insists that those killed were militants, but a member of Zabul’s provincial council insisted that the six killed were all civilians. Several other locals likewise insisted they were civilians. The US [...]
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has announced that it is suspending all humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, citing yesterday’s reported theft of several truckloads of food by the Hamas government. Most of the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip are dependent on international food aid, largely from the UNRWA. The [...]
