Blog Posts

"A surprise announcement by President Donald Trump seemed to accelerate the expected time frame for U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan ahead of an all-Afghan peace summit planned for July 7-8 in Qatar. The gathering apparently will be held on Taliban terms as there will be no official Afghan government representation."

"A surprise announcement by President Donald Trump seemed to accelerate the expected time frame for U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan ahead of an all-Afghan peace summit planned for July 7-8 in Qatar. The gathering apparently will be held on Taliban terms as there will be no official Afghan government representation."

"The United Arab Emirates is aiming to pull most of its forces out of the Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, extricating itself from a four-year war that has provoked congressional opposition and has become a flashpoint with Iran in the region."

"More than nine months after he was charged with murder, attempted murder and a string of other alleged war crimes tied to a 2017 deployment in Iraq, Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward 'Eddie' Gallagher strolled out of a Naval Base San Diego courtroom a free man, guilty only of appearing in an inappropriate photograph."

"An airstrike late on Tuesday hit a detention center for mainly African migrants in a suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing at least 40 people and wounding 80, a health official said."

"Iraq’s government moved Monday night to control powerful Iran-backed militias in the country, placing them under the full command of the Iraqi armed forces."

"President Donald Trump said he wants to get U.S. troops completely out of Afghanistan but said Pentagon leaders have convinced him not to, saying the American military presence there is preventing terrorist attacks."

The United States says it will “never allow” Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, after Tehran announced that it had exceeded the limit on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium it agreed to in the 2015 international accord restraining its nuclear weapons development.

"Israel has praised the Lockheed Martin F-35 as a 'game-changer'."

"Dozens of Afghans were killed Monday morning and more than 105 injured in a brazen strike by Taliban militants on a security compound in the heart of Kabul, officials said, dimming hopes for a new round of U.S.-Taliban peace talks in Qatar that began Saturday."

Pakistan could still be placed on the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog monitoring terror financing and money laundering around the world, its president said last week.

"With the release of the 2017 National Security Strategy, the United States is executing a policy pivot towards preparing for peer competition and away from nearly two decades of counterinsurgency. Yet, the most likely future military conflicts will continue to be small wars and MOOTW—such as security force assistance, counter terrorism missions, evacuating U.S. nationals from conflict zones, and robust peacekeeping."

"Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks, who led U.S. special operations troops in Africa during a tumultuous two-year tenure, warned during a change of command Friday that security conditions are deteriorating in Western Africa, a region where four U.S. troops were killed at the start of his time in command."

"European Union ministers will take part in joint war games over coming months to better prepare the bloc for a range of attacks, from cyberattacks to disinformation campaigns."

A powerful car bomb-and-gun attack in the Afghan capital of Kabul Monday morning is said to have killed and wounded dozens of people.

"Among NATO Members, the rise of populist authoritarian governments eschewing democratic values poses more of a threat to the alliance than an aggressive Russia on its borders or an expansionist China elbowing its way into Europe militarily and economically, a panel of security and diplomatic experts said."

The Taliban and the United States are both said to be making “serious efforts” to conclude a draft text in their latest round of peace negotiations in Qatar that could lay the ground for finding a political settlement to the war in Afghanistan.

"President Trump met Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on Sunday, and briefly crossed into North Korea, marking the first time a sitting U.S. president has ever done so."

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan, is opening a new round of talks with the Taliban in Doha as Washington bids to speed up the process to end the 18-year conflict in the war-torn country.

"President Trump said he is considering ways to resolve a problematic situation borne out of Turkey’s decision to purchase advanced Russian air-defense missile systems the Pentagon regards as a threat to North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s security."

"Health teams responding to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo say their efforts are being severely hampered by attacks on medical staff."

"The Taliban has killed dozens of government forces in its latest battlefield attacks in Afghanistan as the insurgent group opens a new round of peace negotiations with the United States in Qatar to discuss a political settlement to the deadly Afghan war."

"Two suspected Muslim militant suicide attackers detonated bombs in an army camp in the southern Philippines on Friday, killing three soldiers, two civilians and themselves, military officials said."

"Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been called many things by his critics at home — arrogant and impatient, isolated and out of touch with ordinary people. But he surely deserves points for diplomatic perseverance."

"American officials have warned Iraq not to allow Iran-aligned groups to launch attacks from its territory."