Derasat In The News

Britain plans to participate in a U.S.-led effort to train Syrian opposition troops, according to people familiar with the matter, but it will stop short of joining its closest ally in conducting airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria. The U.K. government will announce in the coming days its role in training moderate Syrian opposition forces in...

Because of the ferocious reputation of Isis – created by the “Islamic Caliphate” but assiduously cultivated in the West – we forget that Wednesday’s attack is a mere copy of the far more ruthless assault on foreign tourists launched by Egyptian Islamists during the Mubarak era. 

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they were preparing an offensive against forces loyal to the country’s president a day after suicide bombings marked an escalation of the civil conflict. 

In late 2012, just as President Obama and his aides began secretly sketching out a diplomatic opening to Iran, American intelligence agencies were busy with a parallel initiative: The latest spy-vs.-spy move in the decade-long effort to sabotage Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure. 

Difficult though it may be to believe, Iran presents more important challenges than whether a nuclear deal negotiated with the regime in the teeth of congressional opposition would be legally binding. Nuclear weapons are scary, and they do matter, but in the long run, geopolitical reality matters more.

A senior member of the Saudi royal family has warned that a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme could prompt other regional states to develop atomic fuel. 

United States intelligence agencies detected the deployments in the past few weeks as Iraq was marshaling a force of 30,000 troops — two-thirds of them Shiite militias largely trained and equipped by Iran, according to three American officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence reports on Iran. 

As the Islamic State continues to metastasize in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter warned lawmakers Wednesday that cutting the Pentagon’s budget could lead to serious threats to the nation’s homeland and urged members to find a solution to sequestration for the entire government. 

Few cities can evoke the same sense of promise as Shanghai can. For more than a century, the sprawling metropolis, now teeming with more than 25 million people and home to the world’s busiest transport hub, has been the crucible of modern China.

Islamic State militants were blamed on Wednesday night for a massacre of 20 foreign tourists at Tunisia’s national museum, in what was feared to be revenge for the killing of a leader of the terror group in neighbouring Libya.