Latest Articles about Middle East
Hezbollah Reacts to Israel’s Winograd Report
Israel's recent release of the preliminary findings of the Winograd Commission, an independent government-appointed initiative led by former judge Eliyahu Winograd that was convened to investigate Israel's failures in its summer 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, may spell the political demise of Israeli Prime... MORE
ROSNEFT WINS KEY YUKOS ASSETS IN EASTERN SIBERIA
Russia’s state-run Rosneft energy company has snagged key Yukos assets in Siberia, enabling the company to overtake the privately owned Lukoil in terms of oil production capacity and become Russia's largest oil company. The move has also increased the government's clout in the country's oil... MORE
U.S. PLANS TO ATTACK IRAN FROM MANAS DENIED
On May 3 Marie Yovanovitch, U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, denied reports that the Manas base near Bishkek is being used to store nuclear weapons for a possible attack on Iran. Yovanovitch commented on the “ridiculous” nature of these allegations, which suggested that the U.S. military... MORE
DOES PUTIN HAVE AN ARMS CONTROL AGENDA?
The wave of loud protestations in the West against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “moratorium” on implementing the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty (1990/1999) has temporarily subsided, as the concerned parties hope to receive clarifications on that unprecedented step at the May 10 meeting of... MORE
NATO AND U.S. RALLY SUPPORT FOR ESTONIA
Responding to Russia’s bullying of Estonia (see EDM, April 27, May 1, 3) the U.S. White House has invited Estonian President Toomas Ilves to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on June 25 in Washington. The invitation itself, and the announcement’s timing in May,... MORE
MUKHU ALIEV’S CLAN COMES TO POWER IN MAKHACHKALA
Dagestan elected a new parliament on March 11. As with other regions of Russia, the Kremlin wanted to guarantee a victory for the two pro-Kremlin parties, United Russia and Just Russia. First, the authorities focused all of their efforts on preventing opposition parties from winning... MORE
ESTONIA ALERTS THE EU TO RUSSIA’S CHALLENGE
The violent rioting by several thousand Russian youths in Estonia on April 27-29 obscures the larger fact that hundreds of thousands of Russians in the country have not in any way become involved in illegal behavior or political protests, despite continuing incitement from Moscow. Although... MORE
RUSSIA BEGINS CYBER ATTACKS AGAINST ESTONIAN GOVERNMENT
The Kremlin’s assault on Estonia is intensifying on four levels of varying sophistication. These include: cyber attacks from within Russia’s Presidential Administration against the Estonian presidency’s and government’s electronic communications; political demands, backed by economic sanctions threats, to change the Estonian government; siege laid by... MORE
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES, MEDIA INFLAME SITUATION IN ESTONIA
Tallinn is trying hard to defuse the crisis by initiating a political dialogue with Moscow. To start a dialogue at the parliamentary level, the Estonian Parliament’s Chairwoman, Ene Ergma, invited a Russian delegation, headed by the Duma’s Veterans Affairs Committee chairman Nikolai Kovalyov, to Estonia... MORE
PUTIN CANCELS CFE UNTIL NATO COUNTRIES PROPERLY “ADHERE” TO ITS PROVISIONS
The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty of 1990 has been in trouble for many years, but last week it became apparent that its long illness maybe terminal. During talks on Monday, April 23, in Moscow, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told U.S. Defense Secretary... MORE