Middle East & Africa

World Leaders Address Annual United Nations General Assembly

The Cable

SitRep: Asian Allies React to Trump U.N. Performance

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley U.N. Fallout. After U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a dark, combative speech to the United Nations General Assembly ...

Report

U.S. Weighs Options on Detainees in Iran

The Donald Trump administration faces a pivotal decision in coming weeks on how far it is willing to push to secure the release of several ...

The Cable

As Trump Threatens to ‘Destroy’ North Korea, Air Force Says It’s ‘Ready to Fight’

Hours after President Donald Trump told the United Nations that the U.S. might have “no choice but to totally destroy North Korea” if the regime ...

The Cable

Twitter Suspended Far Fewer Terrorist Accounts in First Half of 2017

Twitter suspended 300,000 accounts for promoting terrorism during the sixth-month period ending June 30, 2017, a 20 percent drop compared to the previous six-month period, ...

Report

At U.N., Trump Threatens to ‘Totally Destroy’ North Korea

U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a fiery, combative speech to the United Nations General Assembly, threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea, denouncing the Iran nuclear ...

Dispatch

Syrians Are Ready to Accept Bashar al-Assad as President

ALEPPO, Syria — Seedra, Zahra, and Faedele draw in the debris with a stick, seemingly oblivious to the destruction surrounding them. The girls are sitting ...

The Cable

SitRep: Two Old “Axis of Evil” Members Loom Large in Trump U.N. Speech

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley Trump, meet the U.N. President Donald Trump plans to call Islamic militants "losers" in his first address before the United ...

The Cable

U.S. Bombs Falling in Record Numbers In Three Countries

U.S. planes are dropping more bombs in Afghanistan than at any point since Aug. 2012 -- when there were 90,000 U.S. combat troops there -- ...

Report

Trump Reaches Out to U.N., Criticizes Waste, in Debut Appearance

President Donald Trump offered the United Nations his highest form of flattery, telling U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and other foreign leaders Monday that he ...

Argument

Mea Culpa: I Said Trump and Bibi Would Blow Up

A year or so ago in this space — or what feels like a year — I predicted that it would be only a matter ...

The Cable

Iraqi President Cancels U.S. Trip Over Kurdish Referendum

Iraqi President Fuad Masum canceled his trip to the United States in order to address the upcoming Kurdish independence referendum, according to an email sent ...

Best Defense

Veterans Administration throws suicide stats out the back door on Friday at 5 p.m.

Veterans are about 20 percent more likely than nonveterans to kill themselves, according to a Veterans Affairs press release issued on Friday afternoon at the ...

The Cable

SitRep: Trump to U.N. As White House Beats War Drums; Trump’s Pentagon Education

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley Trump to the U.N. On the eve of a critical U.N. General Assembly meeting that kicks off on ...

Report

Before U.N. Summit, World Tells Trump His ‘America-First Fun’ Must End

On the eve of the U.N. General Assembly debate, a diverse array of countries have made common cause to prod President Donald Trump to reverse ...

AUSTRIA-IRAN-EU-US-CHINA-NUCLEAR-POLITICS

Report

U.N. Group Says Iran Violated Rights of Two Detained Americans

An independent U.N. human rights body has ruled that Iran’s detention and prosecution of two American-Iranian nationals violated their internationally recognized right to a fair ...

US Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson Visits London

Report

Tillerson, Iranian Foreign Minister to Talk Nuke Deal Next Week

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is preparing to take part in nuclear talks next week with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and representatives of other ...

Rebuttal

Reports of Civilian Casualties in the War Against ISIS Are Vastly Inflated

U.S. officials care deeply about collateral damage and make every effort to investigate claims.

Shadow Government

It’s Time For a New Syria Peace Process

The United States appears to have given up on finding a comprehensive political settlement to Syria’s civil war. The topic has not been on the ...

The Cable

Sudan Hopes for Sanctions Repeal as Deadline Looms

With the clock ticking on an impending Oct. 12 deadline for the permanent lifting of U.S.-imposed sanctions on Sudan, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour arrived ...

Argument

Caste Is Stunting All of India’s Children

Growth in India has always been puzzling. For the first decades of democratic India, economists lamented slow economic progress. Some observers worried that India was ...

Podcast

Inside Afghanistan’s Most Dangerous Corner

[protected-iframe id="e7f9968d262be32d109c33cfabcb6509-71129472-123611325" info="https://player.megaphone.fm/PPY5548821875?" width="100%" height="200" scrolling="no"] With the recent news that President Donald Trump intends to send some 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, abandon ...

The Cable

A New Round of Syria Talks Start in Astana

A sixth round of negotiations over the Syrian conflict in Syria began Thursday in Astana, Kazakhstan, focused chiefly on the creation of a “de-escalation zone” ...

Exclusive

Iran Nuclear Deal Critics Push Plan for ‘Global Economic Embargo’

Opponents of the Iran nuclear deal are pushing a proposal that calls for President Donald Trump to declare that Tehran has failed to comply with ...

Argument

Inside Putin’s Libyan Power Play

Libya, which has been wracked by instability and violence since 2011, is re-emerging as a geopolitical hotspot. With opposing forces fighting for control of the ...

The Cable

SitRep: Iranian, North Korean and American Nukes All Under Review

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley Iran day. Today’s the day President Donald Trump decides whether to again waive economic sanctions against Iran, something ...

Report

U.N. to Join Congolese Authorities in Hunt for Killers of U.N. Experts

The United Nations is poised to launch a fresh bid to find out who killed Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalán — the American and Swedish human ...

Dispatch

Who Will Rule Raqqa After the Islamic State?

AIN ISSA, Syria — For three months, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been fighting to liberate Raqqa from the Islamic State and have ...

The Cable

Netanyahu Finally Supports a Two-State Solution — In Iraq

Iraqi Kurdistan’s quest for independence hasn’t gotten much international support so far. But on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made growing Israeli backing for ...

Podcast

With Allies Like These

[protected-iframe id="c8a64ab8019943237dc678e320fe9eb6-71129472-123611325" info="https://player.megaphone.fm/PNP8777461740?" width="100%" height="200" scrolling="no"] For over eight months, four cranes funded by U.S. taxpayers and destined for Yemen have been stuck in limbo. ...

Best Defense

I am pleasantly surprised to see that two of my books are on the Army’s reading list

The new Army reading list, released in midsummer, includes two books of mine, which both pleases and surprises me. Fiasco was critical of an entire ...

The Cable

SitRep: Putin Pines for Trump’s Attention; Mattis Reviewing Nukes

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley Putin wanted to make up. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the Trump administration a sweeping proposal to reset ...

Feature

On the Edge of Afghanistan

Of all of Afghanistan’s lawless provinces, Nimruz is perhaps the rawest and most untamed. The desert in southwestern Afghanistan, cornering up against Iran and Pakistan, ...

Argument

Lebanon’s Shining Island of Example Is Shrinking

My favorite Beirut cafe is on a street corner opposite a large park, one of the few green spaces in the concrete jungle that is ...

Feature

The Things They Carried: The Iraqis Who Fled Mosul

Standing by the rows of tents that line the dusty plains of northern Iraq, groups of men and children cover their faces from the searing ...

Dispatch

A Refugee Without a River

AMMAN, Jordan — Tagreed Daftar’s thick black hair falls past her shoulders, stark against her bright floral blouse. She is fidgety in the crisply lit ...

Feature

The Iranians Who Can’t (or Won’t) Go Home Again

Iranian Revolutionary Guards drive speed

The Cable

SitRep: Trump to Allow U.S. Military to Take More Aggressive Stance With Iran

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley Trump and Iran. The White House national security team has reportedly drawn up the outlines of a new policy ...

Report

How the U.S. Got Dragged Into Yemen

In January, the World Food Program devised a plan to deliver equipment that would help alleviate the mounting humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. Four cranes, funded ...

The Cable

Syrian Army, U.S-Backed Forces Rub Shoulders In Eastern Syria

U.S.-backed militias and the Syrian Army are less than 10 miles from each other as they converge on the Islamic State stronghold of Deir Ezzour ...

Voice

The Case Against the Iranian Nuclear Deal Is One Big Lie

Imagine we were back in 1948. Suppose Joseph Stalin offered to halt the Soviet Union’s efforts to develop its own atomic bomb for up to ...

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan Holds Rally In Berlin

The Cable

In Upcoming Elections, Will Germany’s Turks Obey Erdogan?

Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan shocked Germans last month when he demanded that Turkish Germans boycott several major parties in the country’s upcoming federal elections. Referring ...

The Cable

SitRep: ISIS Intel Score; U.S. Considers North Korea Sanctions

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001 that ...

Argument

The Iran Deal Is on Thin Ice, and Rightly So

The future of the Iran deal is again under question. President Donald Trump garnered much attention in July by stating he no longer wanted to ...

South Korea Reacts After North Korea Launches Another Test Missile

The Cable

SitRep: North Korea Readies Another ICBM

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley ICBM watch. South Korean intelligence agencies are warning that North Korea is on the verge of another ICBM ...

The Cable

Israel Has Launched Its Largest Military Exercise in Almost 20 Years

The Israeli military is in the midst of its largest military exercise in nearly two decades, focusing on a potential war with Hezbollah. Held ...

Podcast

Rational Security on The E.R.: The “Hurricane Alley” Edition

[protected-iframe id="b6815f21d9c6963191a51c97ad3ebc82-71129472-123611325" info="https://player.megaphone.fm/PPY7491550480?" width="100%" height="200" scrolling="no"] On this week’s episode of Rational Security on The E.R., President Trump’s lawyers argue that he didn’t obstruct justice when he fired ...

The Cable

U.N. Commission Calls Out Syrian Government for Sarin Attack

Investigators at the United Nations said Wednesday that the Syrian government was responsible for the April 4 sarin gas attack that killed at least 83 ...

The Cable

U.S. Sanctions South Sudanese Leaders

The United States is ratcheting up pressure on the South Sudanese government over a conflict that’s teetering on the brink of genocide. On Wednesday, Washington ...

Argument

The Kurds Are Not Children

The timidity of the international community in the face of the Sept. 25 referendum on an independent Kurdistan is a trifecta of shame, absurdity, and ...

Elephants in the Room

We Are Witnessing the Elimination of Christian Communities in Iraq and Syria

Do we want to be the generation that stood by as Christians disappeared almost entirely from the ancient homelands they have occupied since the days ...

Podcast

About That Other Nuclear Threat…

[protected-iframe id="16bbb02cab831b5cacc73d7d96dcc412-71129472-123611325" info="https://player.megaphone.fm/PNP2876387670?" width="100%" height="200" scrolling="no"] Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton penned an open appeal to President Donald Trump last week, ...

Tillerson, Mattis Testify At Closed Hearing On Authorization Of Military Force

Report

Where’s Rex?

President Donald Trump’s administration came out swinging at North Korea after its latest nuclear test. Trump threatened to cut off all trade with any country ...

Voice

My Summer Holiday to the Forever War

Every month, Gen. Joseph Votel, the veteran special operator who leads U.S. Central Command, leaves his Tampa, Florida, headquarters to travel across his vast domain ...

The Cable

Prowling the Syrian Desert, U.S. Picking Off ISIS Fighters in Stranded Convoy

American aircraft have been picking off Islamic State fighters who stray too far from their bus convoy stranded in the Syrian desert, including those who ...

U.S. And South Korean Military Launch Missile Ballistic Exercise

The Cable

SitRep: South Korea and the Military Option

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley Pacific fleet commander speaks in Seoul. On Tuesday, just two days after North Korea’s sixth and largest nuclear ...

Elephants in the Room

Iran, Turkey, and Russia Aren’t Natural Friends. It’s Up to the U.S. to Keep It That Way.

One of the more curious and troubling developments in the course of the Syrian civil war has been Turkey's rapprochement with Russia and cooperation with ...

Shadow Government

The Iran Deal Is Keeping the Middle East From Going Nuclear. Why Does Trump Want to Blow It Up?

Few international agreements are as important to U.S. national security as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal. ...

Dispatch

In Unprecedented Reversal, Kenya’s Top Court Throws Out Election Result

NAIROBI — In a historic decision on Friday, Kenya’s Supreme Court voided President Uhuru Kenyatta’s reelection last month and ordered a second vote to be ...

The Cable

SitRep: Mattis Signs Orders for Afghanistan Deployment

With Adam Rawnsley Troops to Afghanistan. Defense Secretary James Mattis finally confirmed he’s sending more troops to Afghanistan. But he won’t say how many, or ...

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