ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Pepe Escobar Beijing is advancing a Chinese-led globalization that will challenge U.S. hegemony both regionally and globally. Earlier last week, the first Chinese commercial train, with 32 containers, arrived in Tehran after a less than 14-day journey from the massive warehouse of Yiwu in Zhejiang, eastern China, crossing Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. This is a 10,400 km-long trip. Crucially, it’s also no less than 30 days shorter compared to the sea route from Shanghai to Bandar Abbas. And we’re not even talking about high-speed rail yet – which in a few years will be installed all along from eastern China to Iran and onward to Turkey and, crucially, Western Europe, enabling 500-plus container trains to crisscross Eurasia in a flash. When Mohsen Pour Seyed Aghaei, president of Iran Railways, remarked that, “countries along the Silk Road are striving to revive the ancient network of trade routes,” he was barely touching the surface in what is an earth-shattering process. Chinese P...

Companies from 20 countries are involved in the supply chain of components that end up in the explosives used by the Islamic State. The terror group relies on commercially available components for most of its bombs, with some parts coming from as far away as the United States and Japan, according to a report released by a London-based arms research group . Conflict Armament Research (CAR) says most components —such as chemicals and detonators — come from companies in Turkey and Iraq, which may not know the parts are being bought by the extremists. Many components are also used for civilian purposes, such as mining, making them relatively easy to get. The European Union-mandated study showed that 51 companies from countries including Turkey, Brazil, and the United States produced, sold or received the more than 700 components used by Islamic State to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs). IEDs are now being produced on a “quasi-industrial scale” by the militant group, which uses bot...

Forces loyal to Tobruk government reportedly kick out militant groups from Libya's second city after two years of trying A man celebrates in Benghazi on 23 February (AFP) Libyans took to the streets of Benghazi on Tuesday to celebrate the apparent victory of Libyan forces over militant groups that had held parts of the city for years, according to reports. The AP news agency said troops loyal to the Tobruk government pushed into the area of al-Laithi, forcing a withdrawal of militant Islamist fighters. Unconfirmed reports have since emerged that Special French Commando forces recently arrived in Benghazi to support the military operations, a Libyan military source told Huffington Post Arabi. The unnamed sources said that the forces were stationed in Benina Air Base, east of Benghazi, and had set up a common operations room with the Libyan forces to coordinate the action. However, the sources did not say how many troops had been sent and the nature of the reported force remains unc...

YPG fighters observe an ISIS stronghold south Hasakah. Photo: ARA News ALEPPO – Militant fighters of al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda wing in Syria, launched on Tuesday a mortar attack on the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo, causing casualties among civilians, local sources reported. “Nusra militants fired dozens of mortar shells on a crowded market in central Sheikh Maqsoud. At least two civilians were killed and 13 others wounded in the bombardment,” rights activist Haytham Mahmoud told ARA News in Aleppo. Sheikh Maqsoud is under the control of the Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Subsequent to the attack, clashes broke out between the Kurdish fighters and Nusra militants in the vicinity of Sheikh Maqsoud on Tuesday evening. Speaking to ARA News, YPG spokesman Habun Osman said that the clashes centered in the eastern part of the district, “where Nusra terrorists were trying to take over a security checkpoint for the YPG”. “The YPG used heavy machine guns in...

'England is helping Isis and an English reporter is here asking for information' By Robert Fisk We knew who they were the moment they approached us on the front line outside Aleppo. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards – no longer merely advisers but fighting troops alongside the Syrian army – emerged on the roadside in their grey-patterned camouflage fatigues, speaking good though not perfect Arabic but chatting happily in Persian when they knew we could understand them. Why, they asked politely – they were courteous, but very suspicious in the first few minutes – were we filming this part of their line? A mortar exploded in a field to our right – sent over either by Isis or by Jabhat al-Nusra – and we had filmed its cloud of brown smoke as it drifted eastwards. I told the Iranian commander, a tall, bespectacled and thoughtful man, that we were journalists. I got the impression that these men wanted to talk to us – which proved to be the case – but they were wary of us, as if...

By WikiLeaks The Documents -   European Union   -   Italy   -   United Nations Today, 23 February 2016 at 00:00 GMT, WikiLeaks publishes highly classified documents showing that the NSA bugged meetings between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, between Israel prime minister Netanyahu and Italian prime minister Berlusconi, between key EU and Japanese trade ministers discussing their secret trade red-lines at WTO negotiations, as well as details of a private meeting between then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel and Berlusconi. The documents also reveal the content of the meetings from Ban Ki Moon's strategising with Merkel over climate change, to Netanyahu's begging Berlusconi to help him deal with Obama, to Sarkozy telling Berlusconi that the Italian banking system would soon "pop like a cork". Some documents are classified TOP-SECRET / COMINT-GAMMA and are the most highly classified documents ever publish...

By Moon Of Aalabama  This was just published: Joint Statement of the United States and the Russian Federation, as Co-Chairs of the ISSG, on Cessation of Hostilities in Syria Consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and the statements of the ISSG, the cessation of hostilities does not apply to “Daesh”, “Jabhat al-Nusra”, or other terrorist organizations designated by the UN Security Council. There is a word missing in the above when compared to the relevant part of UNSC Res 2254 : ... specifically by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da’esh), Al-Nusra Front (ANF), and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with Al Qaeda or ISIL, and other terrorist groups, ... The "associated" with Al Qaeda are not mentioned in the cessation document. In Idleb and other parts on north Syria Jaish al Fatah is the major terrorist alliance: The Army of Conquest ("Arabic: جيش الفتح‎) or Jaish al-Fatah, abbreviated JaF, is a joi...

By Finian Cunningham CIA-linked private “security” companies are fighting in Yemen for the US-backed Saudi military campaign. Al-Qaeda-affiliated mercenaries are also being deployed. Melding private firms with terror outfits should not surprise. It’s all part of illegal war making. Western news media scarcely report on the conflict in Yemen, let alone the heavy deployment of Western mercenaries in the fighting there. In the occasional Western report on Al-Qaeda and related terror groups in Yemen, it is usually in the context of intermittent drone strikes carried out by the US, or with the narrative that these militants are “taking advantage” of the chaos “to expand” their presence in the Arabian Peninsula, as reported here by the Washington Post. This bifurcated Western media view of Yemen belies a more accurate and meaningful perspective, which is that the US-backed Saudi bombing campaign is actually coordinated with an on-the-ground military force that comprises regular troops, priv...