ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

File photo shows South Sudan’s soldiers in the border state of Unity. South Sudanese government forces have clashed with rebels in several areas across the country, only two days after both sides agreed to a ceasefire. Fresh fighting erupted in the oil-rich north and in a number of other regions just 48 hours after President Salva Kiir and the rebel leader, Riek Machar, signed a ceasefire deal in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Both sides have accused each other of breaching the new ceasefire deal. A military spokesman for the rebels blamed government troops for launching coordinated attacks in the states of Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile. Lul Ruai Koang said, “The government is entirely responsible for these unnecessary attacks motivated by its desires and attempts to recapture oil fields under our control.” Meanwhile, the South Sudanese army said it repelled an attack that was started by the rebels. South Sudan plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between

US Secretary of State John Kerry (R), former top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton (2nd L), Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) and Omani Foreign Minister Yussef bin Alawi (2nd R) pose for a photo in Muscat, November 9, 2014. Finian Cunningham US ‘must soften tone’ on Iran ‘US not after win-win nuclear solution’ It seems like a cruel twist of fate that the mid-term US elections should result in a Republican-controlled Congress - only weeks ahead of the November deadline for a nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers. With the more hawkish Republican Party now dominant in both the Senate and House of Representatives, it looks certain that we can kiss goodbye to a possible resolution of the nuclear dispute and the lifting of Western sanctions on Iran. Delegates from the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany are to meet with counterparts from Iran in the coming days to begin the final countdown to sealing an accord on the nuclear standoff - set for No

Rather than grovel and beg for the U.S. government to respect our privacy, these innovators have taken matters into their own hands, and their work may change the playing field completely. People used to assume that the United States government was held in check by the constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and which demands due process in criminal investigations, but such illusions have evaporated in recent years. It turns out that the NSA considers itself above the law in every respect and feels entitled to spy on anyone anywhere in the world without warrants, and without any real oversight. Understandably these revelations shocked the average citizen who had been conditioned to take the government's word at face value, and the backlash has been considerable. The recent "Today We Fight Back" campaign to protest the NSA's surveillance practices shows that public sentiment is in the right place. Whether these kinds of petitions and p

RIA Novosti/Alexey Filippov NATO doesn’t have the necessary funds to meet the demands of US lawmakers and purchase French-built Mistral warships in order to prevent Russia from getting the vessels, a military source said. "NATO’s budget is too small to not only purchase Russia-ordered Mistral helicopter carriers, but to even compensate France half of the penalties in accordance with the contract,” a military source in Brussels, Belgium told TASS news agency. NATO’s military and civilian budget for 2014 amounts $ 1.6 billion, while the penalty for non-delivery of the two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia could reach $ 3 billion, the source explained. “Moreover, NATO simply doesn’t have a structure that that could receive the ships. The Alliance has almost no military equipment of its own. So there would be no use in the helicopter carriers even if the money to purchase them is found,” the source said. The idea of buying the Mistral vessels is “absurd from a military point of vi

Russia's President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with his China's counterpart Xi Jinping (RIA Novosti/Mikhail Klimentiev) President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have signed a memorandum of understanding on the so-called “western” gas supplies route to China. The agreement paves the way for a contract that would make China the biggest consumer of Russian gas. Russia’s so-called “western” or "Altay" route would supply 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year to China. The new supply line comes in addition to the “eastern” route, through the “Power of Siberia” pipeline, which will annually deliver 38 bcm of gas to China. Work on that pipeline route has already begun after a $400 billion deal was clinched in May. “After we have launched supplies via the “western route,” the volume of gas deliveries to China can exceed the current volumes of export to Europe,” Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller told reporters, commenting on the deal. Speaking to journalists on the

What's Behind Lower Gas-Prices and the Bombings of Syria and of Eastern Ukraine: Obama Represents U.S. & Arabic Aristocracies, Against Those of Russia & Iran By Eric Zuesse (The following report reconstructs U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy, on the basis of what I have deemed to be reliable news accounts of his Administration's actions, not of its mere words. This reconstruction is grounded in the linked-to news-sources, all of which I have investigated and verified -- and some of which I wrote. The ones that I wrote are themselves sourced to the links within those reports, all of which I have, likewise, personally checked and verified. Consequently, the chain of verifications back to this reconstruction's primary sources is available to any online reader, and every reader is encouraged to track back to its ultimate source any allegation that might appear to be at all questionable to him or her in the present article. Not only will this exercise be h

The Khorasan terror group was recently the center of a media circus. And although the terrorist organization demands the counter-terrorism community’s attention, it does not represent a clear and immediate danger to the United States. Moreover, diplomatic observers suggest that a US-Iranian rapprochement is under way, and that Khorasan could play a role in negotiations. The word “Khorasan” refers to a historic region around modern Afghanistan, extending into Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In short, it was once an important part of the pre-Ottoman Islamic caliphate, and now a new militant group has tapped into this historical vein, ostensibly seeking a return to its former glory. Recent American airstrikes in Syria, though mostly aimed at disempowering Islamic State, are also targeting Khorasan. According to intelligence reports, in late September 2014 a Pentagon spokesman indicated that Khorasan was “in the final stages of plans to execute a major attack.” Other cla

Reuters / Gary Cameron ISIS is showing new ingenuity in ferrying fighters into Syria and Iraq untraced, after Turkey stepped up its own efforts at border check-ups. Terrorists are now reportedly taking cruise ships to the warzones, Interpol told the AP. The problem of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) bulking up and recruiting en masse has been one of the greatest obstacles to eradicating the group. For a while now the world didn’t have a proper mechanism to stem the flow of fighters to the IS’ new heartland. The recent airstrike campaign by the US has hardly put a dent in the movement of fighters making their way to Syria, which “remains constant, so the overall number continues to rise,” according to a US intelligence official. And it’s not just cruise ships that worry Interpol, which is having its general assembly in Monaco this week. "Originally, our concern about people on cruise ships — dangerous people on cruise ships — really focused on the classic sort of rapist, burg