“There are shortages of food, cooking gas, fuel and drugs…The health system is collapsing. Patients with chronic diseases cannot get their drugs, bodies are on the streets, and the city is an open dump with trash covering the streets….It is extremely important to lift the blockade on food …

The death penalty given to former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and all the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) will certainly lead to an increase in violence, hence an additional tightening of security measures in Egypt. One day after a judge issued the mass death sentence for the …

The Pentagon and US intelligence community are weighing what is referred to as an “Al-Sisi Option” for Libya, as the June 17 deadline for a United Nations-brokered cease-fire and unity government deal nears, with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough.  The United Nations Support Mission in Libya, headed …

The fall of Palmyra just after Ramadi emphasized the impression that ISIL regained the momentum, hence will help the organization recruit more fighters. Yet, the story of the fall of Ramadi is totally different than that of the fall of Palmyra. The current ISIL offensives extends from Ramadi …

There are legitimate reasons to compare the ongoing military insurrection in Libya against the Islamist-dominated government in Tripoli and the Al Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood militias dominating the eastern half of the country to the June-July 2013 events in Egypt, which ousted the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi.  Libyan …

The fall of Ramadi and Palmyra to the Islamic State (ISIL) has rekindled the debate in Washington over the viability of the Obama Administration’s strategy for defeating ISIL.  What was already a behind-closed-doors criticism has mushroomed into a very public debate, following Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s May 24 …

Both Iran and Turkey are racing to increase their gains in Iraq while the Arab Sunni states are trying to strengthen their ties to Iraqi Sunni tribes. In the case of Tehran, it is busy now trying to establish a larger presence in Kurdistan. For its part, Turkey’s …

If anyone speaks, however cautiously, about Syria’s existence as a sovereign state, one must admit that the line between the opposing sides—ISIL and the foreign Jihadists fighting with it on the one hand and Hezbollah, Iraqi, Pakistani and Iranian militias on the other—disappears.   ISIL, by definition, does not …

By Velbona Zenelli The economies of the Western Balkan countries — Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia — still lag behind the rest of Europe. The regional average income levels fluctuate from an annual level of $5,300, to as low as only 31% …