July 3, 2025
Home Articles posted by admin (Page 2297)
Middle East

Lebanon’s Hariri denounces Iraqi Shia paramilitary’s visit to border

The head of an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia visited Lebanon's border with Israel, accompanied by Hezbollah fighters, a video released on Saturday revealed, in a show of Iranian influence that Lebanon's prime minister called illegal. Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Iraqi paramilitary group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, declared his readiness "to stand together with the
Middle East

Iraq and Iran sign Kirkuk oil swap agreement

Member of Iraqi government forces stands guard recently at Bai Hassan oil field, west of Kirkuk (AFP/file photo) Iraq has agreed to swap as many as 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from the northern Iraqi Kirkuk oilfield for Iranian oil, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Saturday. The agreement signed by the two countries provides for Iran to deliver to
Middle East

Turkey agrees to accept migrant returns from Greek mainland: Report

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives gift from child during a visit to Komotini, northeast Greece, on Friday (AFP) Greece has persuaded Turkey to accept migrant returns from the mainland in order to reduce critical overcrowding in its refugee camps, a report said on Saturday. The Kathimerini daily said the agreement came during a strained two-day state
Uncategorized

Bratislava is for losers

It’s been a rough few weeks for Slovakia. First, its capital is passed up as the new host of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) after Brexit in favor of Amsterdam. Then its finance minister, Peter Kažimír, resigns from the race for the Eurogroup leadership — a position that would have given the country a real seat at the table, for once. Slovaks reacted to the bad news
Uncategorized

Two-speed Europe is a mistake

PRAGUE — The European Union is at a crossroads. Some have called for the creation of a “two-speed Europe,” in which a small group of EU countries pursue tighter integration, leaving those unwilling to follow on the periphery. This would be a mistake, and a dangerous one. Critics of the EU sometimes reproach the bloc for inefficiency and mock our sometimes drawn
Uncategorized

Why Europe doesn’t need a finance minister

In his State of the Union address in September, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for the creation of a European finance minister position to improve the bloc’s fiscal governance. The proposal is ill-designed and will create more problems than it solves. A European finance minister — as Juncker outlined it — is a misnomer that will create false
Uncategorized

Redrawing the Brexit map

LONDON — Since the 2016 Brexit referendum, the biggest issue in British politics has been the country’s membership in the EU. The Brexit fault-line cuts directly across traditional party lines and pits warring factions in the major parties against each other. When it comes to British political identities, “Remain” and “Leave” have become as important — and many would say
Uncategorized

How I trolled Putin and lived to tell the tale

NEW YORK — An avalanche of sleekly produced, glitzy talk-shows took over prime time television in Russia in the aftermath of Vladimir Putin’s military adventure in Ukraine in 2014. He needed to sell the war to his electorate, and the Kremlin kicked its vast apparatus of state-controlled print and broadcast media into overdrive. The shows created an alternative,
Uncategorized

Egypt attack is tragic evidence of ‘new normal’

The murder of at least 305 practicing Sufis in Egypt on Friday not only represents a dangerous escalation of violence in the Sinai, it also reflects a dramatic expansion of terrorism across North Africa and the Middle East over the past five years. The savage attack on worshipers in Bir al-Abed is a reminder that the vast majority of terrorist-related killings don’t occur