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MidEast

cairo

Ongoing tensions between Hamas and Egypt – which have seen the popularity of the Iran-backed terror group plummet amid a media blitz conducted by Egyptian security officials – deepened on Monday after a high-ranking Hamas delegation was besieged by protesters outside their Cairo hotel. Arabic media outlets are now suggesting...

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MidEast

hezbollah fighters

A columnist for a Saudi website argues that Hezbollah hasn’t simply exacerbated tensions between Shi’ites and Sunnis, but has also opened a rift within Shi’ism. The opinion editor of Asharq Al-Awsat, Mshari Al-Zaydi observes in This repulsive war has just begun: Now, Sheikh Qaradawi, who once described Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah as heroes, describes...

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Diplomacy

belfast

Though the U.N. has asked the parties backing the various entities in the Syrian conflict to stop injecting weapons into the violent war. The parties backing the various entities in the Syrian conflict seem to have declined to acede to the U.N.’s request: Heavy fighting resumed around the northern Syrian...

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Global Affairs

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The United Nations has been declining to publish a detailed report – one which has already been approved by the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee – detailing the degree to which Iran has been able to dodge existing sanctions. Somebody somewhere wanted the report to see the light of day,...

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MidEast

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Clashes have erupted in Egypt after a series of appointments made by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi triggered renewed fears that Morsi was working to consolidate the authority of hard-line Islamists at the expense of civil liberties and the Egyptian economy. In Luxor the appointment of Adel Asaad Al-Khayat as the new...

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Iran

rouhani 3

“Mourning for Children: the Sins of fathers” is a powerful essay, which is not officially allowed to be read or cited in Iran. But it is the talk of the town and gossip among Tehran’s political, business, and academic circles. It was published in November, 2011, by Ali Reza Nourizadeh,...

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Iran

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Observers are expressing concerns over the past activities and future intentions of Iranian president-elect and revolutionary-era cleric Hassan Rouhani, who won Iran’s Friday election after a purge of candidates by the country’s powerful Guardian Council, coupled with a subsequent drop-out by another candidate, left him as the relatively most moderate candidate....

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MidEast

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Turkish police arrested dozens of people in Istanbul and Ankara Tuesday as part of a crackdown against anti-government protests that began in late May, with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claiming by morning that the government had achieved victory in putting down the protests. The semiofficial Anatolian news agency said 84...

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Diplomacy

fiji undof

Efforts are being made to bolster the contingent of UN peacekeepers on the Golan Heights,even as it is being scaled down in the shadow of deteriorating stability between on the Israeli-Syrian border. Fiji, a tiny chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, agreed to send it troops to strengthen the...

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Diplomacy

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A G8 meeting today between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the Syrian conflict ended without apparent progress. Reuters conveys the mood awkward: Both leaders looked tense and uncomfortable as they addressed reporters after about two hours of talks, with Putin staring mostly at the floor as he...

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