ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The Saudis and the Turks are scaling up their support for Syrian jihadists while the Israelis contemplate a new war with Hezbollah. By Conn Hallinan A quiet meeting this past March in Saudi Arabia, and a recent anonymous leak from the Israeli military, set the stage for what may be a new and wider war in the Middle East. Gathering in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh were Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, newly crowned Saudi King Salman, and the organizer of the get-together, the emir of Qatar. The meeting was an opportunity for Turkey and Saudi Arabia to bury a hatchet over Ankara’s support — which Riyadh’s opposes — to the Muslim Brotherhood, and to agree to cooperate in overthrowing the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. Taking Aim at Assad The pact prioritized the defeat of the Damascus regime over the threat posed by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and aims to checkmate Iranian influence in the region. However, the Turks and the Saudis are not quite on the same page w...

Photo from wikipedia.org In between pontificating on the US election, Greece’s turmoil and the position of Russia, participants in the shadowy Bilderberg conference are going to discuss the development of artificial intelligence and risks of cyberspace. The club that has been bringing together west’s most influential financiers, media moguls, industry captains, politicians and royalty for over six decades, is meeting this week in Austria. Some 140 guests are to visit the Telfs-Buchen alpine resort, where this year’s conference is to be held, just 20 km from the site of the G7 summit. The group has published its agenda and guest list ahead of the four-day private event. From politics, it brings together two current European prime ministers, Mark Rutte of the Netherlands and Charles Michel of Belgium, and several ministers such as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb. A lower tier of pub...

Varvara Karaulova (Photo from facebook.com) A Russian teenage girl, who had been caught in Turkey on her way to Syria, is awaiting deportation to Russia. The father of the suspected Islamic State (IS) recruit spoke to RT after seeing his daughter for the first time since she ran away. “We met warmly, we hugged and kissed. The first thing she asked me was, 'Daddy, when will you get me out of here? When will we go home?” Pavel Karaulov, father of Varvara Karaulova told RT. The father said that the he was only able to exchange “I love you” phrases with Varvara, as their meeting was limited to five minutes according to the Turkish procedural rule. “The most important thing was to make sure that Varvara's health is alright, that she feels good, that she’s is kept in normal conditions,”Pavel told RT. He also wanted to make sure that his daughter has everything she needs. The 19-year-old appeared to have lost some weight, but the medical examination proved she was in good health. “Var...