...
REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Igor Ivanov:
Russia and the United States Have to Get Back
to Constructive Dialogue
Against the backdrop of George W. Bush’s failed offensive strategy, the “regime change” policy and forced democratization in the Middle East and in other regions of the world in 2008, Democratic candidate Barack Obama at that time called for establishing cooperation with other power centres (such as China and Russia) and rejecting interventionism and excessive reliance on military ...
A brief overview of the main groups and their leaders
A brief overview of the main groups and their leaders.
The authors described extremist organisations on multiple parameters, such as history, social base and numbers, activity region, leaders, ideology, financing, enemies and allies, stance on the Syrian ceasefire.
Project page:
http://russiancouncil.ru/en/syria-extremism
... Russia has recently signed a
memorandum of understanding
on LNG with Bahrain, which is Saudi Arabia's closest neighbour. According to earlier reports, Russia and Bahrain were looking into the possibility of building an LNG receiving terminal in that Middle Eastern country. If constructed, the facility could be used for exporting LNG not just to Bahrain but also to neighbouring countries. Saudi Arabia's geographical proximity to Bahrain, as well as the
established energy ties
between the two states,...
On the eve of the US presidential elections, Chatham House, Britain’s leading analytical center on international relations, published an article by Flynt Leverett, professor of the University of Pennsylvania, titled
US Election Note Middle East Policy After 2016
. Leverett dwells on the future of the US Middle East policies. Leverett, a former member of the National Security Council and of the CIA, paints a fairly worrying picture of Washington soon reconsidering its policies in ...
... that has recently become woefully deficient. Even more intriguing, some of the most vivid recent examples of that degrading relationship have been exhibited within the UNSC itself. On the general business front, Russia will see issues dominating the Middle East and Africa at the top of the schedule: · developments in Syria; · settlements and their legality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; · implementation of resolution 1559 in Lebanon; · ongoing hostilities in Yemen; ...
A year ago Russia announced the beginning of its military campaign in Syria which has become the first military operation of the Russian Armed Force in the Middle East. Being one of the major external actors in the Syrian conflict Russia has been staying away from direct involvement for four years. Interfering in the Syrian civil war upon the request of Bashar Assad’s government on September 30, 2015 Moscow ...
... 2016
Rating
Country
Points
Change on previous year
1
Hong Kong
88,6
-1,0
2
Singapore
87,8
-1,6
3
New Zealand
81,6
-0,5
18
Bahrain
74,3
+0,9
153
Russia
50,6
-1,5
Source
:
www.heritage.org/index/Country/Bahrain
Bahrain is the highest ranked of the 17 Middle East countries in terms of economic freedom (
Table 2
).
Table 2.
Regional Economic Freedom Ratings in 2016
Rating
Country
Points
∆ compared with 2015
1
Bahrain
74,3
0,9
2
UAE
72,6
0,2
3
Qatar
70,7
-0,1
3
Israel
70,7
0,2
5
Jordan
68,3
-1,0
Source
...
On September 23-24, 2016 Muscat (Oman) hosted a meeting of the “Middle East Dialogue” group – an international expert forum to discuss the pressing issues of security and development in the Arab world. The event was organized by the Washington Middle East Institute.
The meeting was attended by experts,...
... the Democratic candidate, and the most conservative part of the Republic establishment are in the way), isolationist moods in the US will grow.
A long way uphill
REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
Igor Ivanov:
Is a Collective Security System Possible in
the Middle East?
Summarizing the results of the antiterrorist campaign that started on September 11, 2001, we can draw the following conclusions.
1. Terrorism is on the rise; the number of local Islamist groups fighting (sometimes successfully) against their ...
Review: “Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari’a Law” by Sadakat Kadri’
At a time when extremist groups such as the Islamic State that claim to be seeking Islamic rule in the Middle East threaten global stability, the world is becoming more and more suspicious of Islam itself. Some have gone as far as to suggest that the Shari'a law which extremists seem to have instrumentalized is a malicious legal system that has no right ...
