ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The Iraqi government has transferred USD 500 million to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq as part of a deal hoped to end long-running domestic oil and budget disputes, Iraqi finance minister says. Hoshyar Zebari said in Baghdad on Wednesday that his ministry transferred the sum to the account of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) earlier in the day under the deal which requires Iraq to resume funding Kurdish civil servant salaries in return for a share of Kurdish oil exports. He said the KRG began supplying 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day to State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) storage tanks in the Turkish port city of Ceyhan on Tuesday. "This mutual implementation means that the two sides are ready to resolve all the other issues and all the issues are up for discussion," Zebari stated. Iraqi Oil Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi has praised the deal between Baghdad and the KRG, saying it reduces friction "that threatens not only economic, secur

Screenshot from RT video To prevent European converts who listen to extremist preachers from fighting for ISIS, European governments should revoke their travel documents, defense consultant Moeen Raoof told RT. Jihadists released a video of the beheading of a foreign hostage, US aid worker Peter Kassig, on the weekend. The footage also shows at least 14 Syrian soldiers beheaded by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) fighters. It revealed that several of the executioners which appear on the video were Europeans: a former UK medical student and 22-year-old Frenchman Maxime Hauchardt. Allegedly, there were more British, French and German militants, but no names have yet emerged. Kassig is the fifth foreign hostage to be executed this way. He was captured a year ago in Syria while he was helping war causalities. RT: What reaction do you expect from foreign governments after their citizens were recognized as jihadist killers? Moeen Raoof: [Foreign governments] will have the normal reaction of

By William Blum – Published November 19th, 2014 “Russia reinforced what Western and Ukrainian officials described as a stealth invasion on Wednesday [August 27], sending armored troops across the border as it expanded the conflict to a new section of Ukrainian territory. The latest incursion, which Ukraine’s military said included five armored personnel carriers, was at least the third movement of troops and weapons from Russia across the southeast part of the border this week.” None of the photos accompanying this New York Times story online showed any of these Russian troops or armored vehicles. “The Obama administration,” the story continued, “has asserted over the past week that the Russians had moved artillery, air-defense systems and armor to help the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. ‘These incursions indicate a Russian-directed counteroffensive is likely underway’, Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said. At the department’s daily briefing in Washington, Ms. Psaki a