Section: Non-Middle East media focused on Middle East
Opinion: Russia and the danger of conspiracy theories
The way President Vladimir Putin tells it, Russia is the victim of a great conspiracy designed to prevent it from claiming a position within the global networks of leadership. The Europeans are plotting to deny Russia the right to host the 2018 football World Cup. The Americans are trying to throw a lasso around Russia by building up the military...
Moscow changing tack on relationship with Assad: sources
In this February 7, 2012 file photo, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad (L) meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Syrian capital Damascus. (AFP Photo) Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—Clear signs are emerging of a dramatic U-turn in Russia’s policy toward the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, with Moscow even beginning to consider a...
Opinion: Iran’s first acquisition after the deal
Iran’s first acquisition after signing the draft nuclear deal, amid promises to lift sanctions, were not cars, airplanes, refrigerators, or women’s purses–but rather long-range missiles! Iran was overjoyed after acquiring S300 missiles that the Kremlin has agreed to send this summer. But the Russian statement angered countries in the...
Iran will only sign nuclear deal if sanctions lifted “same day’: Rouhani
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a news briefing at the Saadabad palace in Tehran, Iran, on April 3, 2015. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) Ankara, Reuters—Iran will only sign a final nuclear accord with six world powers if all sanctions imposed over its disputed atomic work are lifted on the same day, President Hassan Rouhani said in a...
Greece has not asked Russia for aid, Greek official says
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (R) attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier in Moscow, Russia, on April 8, 2015. (EPA/Ivan Sekretarev/Pool) Moscow, Reuters—Greece has not asked Russia for money to help cope with its debt and financial problems and wants to resolve them within the European Union, a Greek government...
Opinion: Moscow is seeking a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula
So Russia is concerned about the humanitarian situation in Yemen! Do not ask how and why this has suddenly happened. Russia seems to have a twinge of guilt perhaps and wants to atone for its previous mistakes against the Syrian people, hundreds of thousands of whom it has helped kill, also displacing millions. But Russia will not atone for its...
Pope, thousands brave rain for Easter in St. Peter’s Square
Pope Francis greets the crowd from the central loggia of St Peters’ basilica after the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing for Rome and the world following the Easter Mass, on April 5, 2015, in Vatican City. (AFP Photo/ Filippo Monteforte) Vatican City, AP—In an Easter peace wish, Pope Francis on Sunday praised the framework nuclear agreement with Iran...
Iranians celebrate, Obama hails “historic” nuclear framework
Iranians celebrate on a street in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 2, 2015, after Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers in Lausanne, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) Lausanne, Switzerland, Reuters—Iranians celebrated in the streets after negotiators reached a framework for a nuclear deal that could bring their country in...
Opinion: Putin’s Inverted Logic
Fate has decreed that Mr. Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia—and everybody knows what Russia is— shares the same logic of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah militia. Both these men, who are involved one way or another with the fighting in Syria, the killing of its unarmed people, and intervening in the Arab state’s internal...
Pro-Russian rebels say agree to withdraw weapons in east Ukraine
Fighters with the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic army walk by a destroyed Ukrainian armored personnel carrier at a checkpoint on the road from the town of Vuhlehirsk to Debaltseve, on February 20, 2015. (Reuters/Baz Ratner) Nizhnyaya Krynka, Reuters—A senior pro-Russian rebel commander said separatist forces were due...
