ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Pepe Escobar Facing the gleaming Doha skyline on a Persian Gulf winter carries the merit of a panoramic perspective. Most nations around it are going into melt down and the remaining ones – with the exception of Iran – exhibit neither the political leadership nor the economic and institutional infrastructure to do anything other than to meekly accept whatever tsunami hits their shores. They are nothing but scared spectators. The Empire of Chaos has enough warmongering hardware pre-positioned within spitting distance to turn the whole of Southwest Asia into ashes – as a gaggle of usual suspects in the Beltway, neocon or neoliberalcon, still can’t find a cure to their itching to «really win the next war» in a sort of exponential Shock and Awe. Fear reigns supreme. Jim Rickards, the author of Currency Wars, economist and CIA asset, has just released a new book, The Big Drop, with a pretty grim message. For his part J im Rogers , a.k.a. the «Sage of Singapore», most of the time China-bo

TEHRAN (FNA)- The great Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — the long-time dictator of crude oil prices for the world — is struggling on all fronts, Business Insider said. The Saudis are losing their proxy wars in both Syria and Yemen; their OPEC leadership is under threat; they are not winning the crude oil price war; and its long-running alliance with the West is in question, Business Insider reported. From Saudi Arabia’s perspective, Iran seems to be gaining ground everywhere. Saudi Arabia has several weaknesses that help explain the current anxiety emanating from Riyadh. 1. Saudi Arabia losing its leadership in the OPEC Saudi Arabia has been the default leader of OPEC; however, despite Saudi insistence to the contrary, the U.S. shale boom, increased Russian oil production, and a very resolute Iran are challenging this leadership. The result is that Saudi Arabia now finds itself powerless in supporting oil prices. Instead of the much-needed production cuts, during the 4 December 2015 meeting

TEHRAN (FNA)- At least 144 Al-Nusra Front terrorists were killed in the heavy airstrikes and artillery fire of the Russian and Syrian armies in Idlib province on Sunday night. The Russian and Syrian fighter jets targeted hideouts of al-Nusra Front terrorist group in al-Arbaeen Mountains in Idlib, killing 124 militants and wounding tens of others. The al-Nusra Front members have released the names of those killed in the attacks on their social media pages. Also, 20 more al-Nusra terrorists were killed in the Syrian army's artillery fire on militants' positions in Kafar Sanjah village in Ma'rat al-Na'man region. Other reports, on Sunday, also said that the Southern battlefields of Idlib province were the scenes of fierce battles between the militant groups and the Syrian Army and its popular allies, adding that scores of the terrorists were killed or wounded in the battle. The Syrian Army and the National Defense Forces (NDF) stormed gathering centers of the Jeish al-Nasr

Report by UK charity Oxfam calls for a crackdown on tax havens as the world's wealthiest hide $7.6 trillion from taxes. The world's richest 62 people now own as much wealth as half of the world's population, according to a report by the charity Oxfam. Super-rich individuals saw an increase of 44 percent since 2010, taking their cumulative wealth to $1.76 trillion - equivalent to the total owned by 3.5 billion of the world's poorest people. The UK-based charity on Monday also said tax havens were helping corporations and individuals to stash away about $7.6 trillion, depriving governments of $190bn in tax revenue every year. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Helen Szoke, Oxfam Australia's chief executive, said that there were no appropriate mechanisms to check if wealth was being shared appropriately. "We believe there is a need for commitments from global business leaders and political leaders for major tax reform to get rid of the tax havens," Szoke said. "Th

By Peter Van Buren How can we stop the Islamic State? Imagine yourself shaken awake, rushed off to a strategy meeting with your presidential candidate of choice, and told: “Come up with a plan for me to do something about ISIS!” What would you say? What Hasn't Worked You'd need to start with a persuasive review of what hasn't worked over the past 14-plus years. American actions against terrorism -- the Islamic State being just the latest flavor -- have flopped on a remarkable scale, yet remain remarkably attractive to our present crew of candidates. (Bernie Sanders might be the only exception, though he supports forming yet another coalition to defeat ISIS.) Why are the failed options still so attractive? In part, because bombing and drones are believed by the majority of Americans to be surgical procedures that kill lots of bad guys, not too many innocents, and no Americans at all. As Washington regularly imagines it, once air power is in play, someone else's boots

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation said that the Russian Air Force destroyed around 1,100 terrorist positions in Syria since the beginning of 2016. Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, Forces Lt.Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, stated on Monday that within the first 10 days of 2016, the Russian Air Force carried out 311 sorties targeting 1,097 terrorist positions in the countryside of Damascus, Aleppo, Idleb, Lattakia, Hama, Homs, Deir Ezzor, Hasaka, Daraa, and Raqqa provinces. He said that the airstrikes targeted petroleum infrastructure controlled by terrorists, sites for extracting and refining oil, positions where terrorist groups were stationed, and military equipment, asserting that the airstrikes focus on weakening the capabilities of terrorist organizations and providing direct support to the Syrian Arab Army and other formations fighting ISIS. Rudskoy noted that the most significant successes in battle against terrorists we

Deir Ezzor, SANA –ISIS terrorists committed a massacre in al-Bghailiye village in Deir Ezzor’s western countryside, claiming the lives of around 300 civilians, most of them women, children, and elderly people, Local sources told SANA. The Cabinet condemned the heinous crime, with Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi saying that the legal and moral responsibility for this barbaric and cowardly massacre committed by ISIS hordes lies on the shoulders of all the states that support terrorism and that fund and armor Takfiri organizations which harbor hatred for all humanity. The Premier said that terrorist organizations are committing massacres to make up for the recurring losses and defeats they suffer at the hands of the Syrian Arab Army, and that these terror organizations know that their days in Syria are numbered. He said that such massacres will not dissuade Syrians from pursuing reconciliations and working to liberate the entirety of Syrian territories, offering condolences to the familie

The defense ministry’s representative said over recent five years the organization’s head and sole employee was the man called Ossama Suleiman, who moved to the UK in 2000 after having served three prison terms in Syria and who took the nickname of Rami Abdurrahman. By Igor Konashenkov General Konashenkov said the ministry has found out who is behind the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which distributes information blackmailing the Russian Aerospace Force grouping in Syria. According to the official, the man moved to the United Kingdom after serving three terms in Syria. "The first throwing-in of false information about claimed victims in the Russian air strikes appeared in social networks and some western media well before our mission in the Syrian Arab Republic began," he said. "Most information was distributed on behalf of so-called ‘Syrian human rights activists’." In "distribution" of the statements made by those "human rights activis