ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The EU has decided not to attempt to block construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline more. Photo: Kommersant / Alexander Shcherbak The EU has refused all its attempts to block construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline , the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported. According to the newspaper, the EU authorities have long been under the pressure of several states, the main of which was Poland , but now Brussels wants to remove the concerns of these countries with the help of Moscow. Earlier, the European Commission sent an official letter to the heads of the energy departments of Sweden and Denmark, in which clearly stated that it sees no reason to file a lawsuit against the Nord Stream-2. As the Wall Street Journal noted, Brussels has concluded the discussion on the implementation of this project. At the same time, the European Commission admits that the counteracting can lie only in a political context, there are no legal grounds for impeding the construction. In addition, the...

Two pro-militant journalists have sued US President Donald Trump and his administration for the fact that they were allegedly included in a list of persons that should be eliminated by US drones due to ties with terrorist organizations. US President Donald Trump (Photo: AFP 2017 / Mandel Ngan) Former chief of the Al Jazeera bureau in Pakistan , Ahmed Zaidan, and string correspondent Bilal Kareem have sued US President Donald Trump and officials of his administration, the Politico magazine reported on Friday. The journalists claim that they were allegedly included in a list of persons that should be eliminated by US drones due to ties with terrorist organizations. According to the journalists, they were added to the list of special services under the administration of former US President Barack Obama, but the new president and his team did nothing to exclude them from the targets of the US Air Force. The reporters deny their connection with terrorists in a lawsuit, filed in the Wash...

Click to see the full-size map The Free Syrian Army’s Ahmad Aboud Forces captured Abu Adnan farm, Beir Al Rasef and Bier Khasab in the Syrian desert north of Suwaida Governorate. According to pro-position sources, the Syrian Air Force targeted the Ahmad Aboud Forces during their advance in the Syrian desert. As a result, many rebels were killed or injured. Adnan Al Khuleh, a field commander of the Ahmad Aboud Forces, was among killed. Pro-government sources didn’t confirm or deny the airstrike so far. View image on Twitter  Follow قوات م1 أحمد العبدو   @QwatAbdo 10:51 PM - 28 Mar 2017     6 6 Retweets     20 20 likes The Ahmad Aboud Forces announced that their next target is to break the ISIS siege on the Jaish Al-Islam-held area in eastern Qalamun. Rebels will have to capture the area around Bier Mdad north of the Al Seen air base and Al Mussnah village in eastern Qalamun to achieve this goal. It’s imp...

The head of the Kurdistan Regional Government has announced preparations for a referendum on independence of the region from Iraq. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (L) and head of the Kurdistan Regional Government Massoud Barzani (Photo: Twitter / SamiErgoshi) During a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) , Massoud Barzani, has announced preparations for a referendum on independence of the region from Iraq. According to Barzani, “the referendum, which is the highest form of democracy, will be held in Iraqi Kurdistan in the near future.” Barzani noted that the international community should get to know about the Kurdish people’s opinion. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi commented on these statements. According to al-Abadi, “separation of Kurdistan from Iraq does not meet the interests of Kurds.” “Not only Iraq, but also Turkey and Syria, where a large number of Kurds live, oppose the aspiration of Erbil [the admin...

A senior U.S. general said on Wednesday it will be difficult to maintain "extraordinarily high standards" to avoid civilian casualties in Mosul, even as the U.S. military begins a formal investigation into an explosion in the Iraqi city that is believed to have killed scores of civilians. The U.S. military has acknowledged the U.S.-led coalition probably had a role in the March 17 explosion but said Islamic State also could be to blame. Local officials and eyewitnesses say as many as 240 people may have been killed in the Al-Jadida district when a huge blast caused a building to collapse, burying families inside. When asked in a congressional hearing about the standards used by the U.S. military to avoid civilian casualties, General Joseph Votel said it would be difficult to apply those standards in the narrow, crowded streets of the Old City in west Mosul. "I do agree that as we move into these urban environments, it is going to become more and more difficult to apply e...

Details are emerging about U.S.-led coalition airstrikes that are believed to have killed over 200 people in a single day in Iraq. The U.S.-led coalition has admitted launching airstrikes on March 17 targeting a crowded neighborhood in Mosul. They are among the deadliest U.S. airstrikes in the region since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. According to some reports, one of these strikes destroyed houses where hundreds of people were taking refuge amid the city’s heavy fighting. Up to 80 civilians, including women and children, may have died in one house’s basement alone. This bombing is just one of an onslaught of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that has killed as many as 1,000 civilians in March alone, according to the journalistic project Airwars. For more, we speak with Chris Woods, founder of Airwars, a nonprofit group that monitors civilian deaths from international airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. TRANSCRIPT This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final fo...

The al-Qaeda-linked Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group resumed its attack on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the Manshieh district of the Syrian city of Dara’a with no gains whatsoever. Click to see the full-size image The SAA was able to fully repel HTS’s assault destroying a tank and killing its crewmen one of whom identified as Abdullah Al-Ordoni, the commander of HTS’s tank battalion in southern Syria. The Syrian Army then continued to target HTS movements around the provincial capital and inside. According to pro-government sources, HTS lost scores of militants in Dara’a’s al-Balad district. The terrorist group’s fortifications were destroyed in the neighboring Ibta’ village and a HTS command center was destroyed in Al-Bihar district. From its side HTS reported that the group had targeted an SAA HQ inside the embattled Manshieh district. HTS targets an SAA HQ According to several sources embedded in the SAA, government forces are now preparing for an attack in the...

“Abnormal beards” have been banned in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China in order to combat religious extremism. Photo: AP / Ahn Young-joon The authorities of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China are going to introduce a ban on wearing “abnormal beards” in order to combat religious extremism, the Tianshan Van information website reported. According to the website, the set of rules was adopted at a session of the Assembly of People’s Representatives of Xinjiang, which was held a day before. It will come into force on April 1. In addition to wearing an “an abnormal beard,” dissemination of extremist ideology and interference in religious freedom have also been banned. According the new rules, it is prohibited to wear clothes that completely cover face and body, as well as extremist attributes, in public places. Employees of airports, railway stations and public transport have been ordered to close doors for people in such clothes and report about them to law e...