Rising Tensions in Cyprus: A Call to Action for the United States

Cyprus’ fragility has only become more fluid due to the toothless fortitude of the United Nations and the inability of British troops on the isle. Turkey, like Russia, feeds off appeasement and indecisiveness by the EU, NATO, and UN to condemn their aggression and violations over Hellenic air and naval space and continued settlement buildup in the occupied areas of Cyprus.

After tense talks, UN renews peacekeepers in Lebanon

The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to renew the mandate for a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon on Wednesday, following tense negotiations amid US and Israeli criticism that UN troops should do more to stop Hezbollah from receiving arms shipments. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) – established in 1978 – patrols Lebanon’s southern […]

Machine gun attack on U.N. Mali base in Timbuktu kills seven

Gunmen attacked a United Nations peacekeeping base in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu on Monday, officials said, killing seven people, including five Malian security guards, a gendarme and civilian. “An attack has been launched against one of our camps in Timbuktu (by) unknown men with machine guns,” Radhia Achouri, a spokeswoman for the U.N. […]

French and West African presidents launch Sahel force

African powers launched a new multinational military force to tackle Islamist militants in the Sahel on Sunday, which French President Emmanuel Macron told a regional summit should be fully operational by the autumn despite its current budget shortfall. Some observers see the initiative of the G5 Sahel bloc – Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and […]

Al Qaeda branch rallies jihadists to join forces after Mali merger

The merger of Mali’s main jihadist groups earlier this month was endorsed on Friday by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), whose leader rallied other jihadist organizations to follow suit and “achieve unity”. The SITE Intelligence Group quoted AQIM’s Abu Musab Abdul Wadud congratulating the groups for joining forces under the command of veteran […]

Turkey’s Erdogan renews war of words, blames Dutch peacekeepers for Srebrenica massacre

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday directed fresh verbal attacks at the Netherlands amid their growing diplomatic spat, holding the country responsible for Europe’s worst mass killing since World War II. In a televised speech, Erdogan referred to the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, […]