ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Tyler Durden   Amid the constant media outrage over everything  Trump, Trump, Trump , some might have forgotten that in the political rollercoaster over the past 12 months, there were numerous other high-profile individuals involved, including not  only former DOJ head Loretta Lynch , whose every interaction with the Clinton campaign is about to be probed under a Congressional microscope, but the man who some say started it all: former FBI Director James Comey. First loved by the Democrats when he personally absolved Hillary Clinton of any sins regarding her (ab)use of her personal email server, then furiously loathed when he reopened the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton one week before the election, then finally getting into a feud with President Trump which cost his him job, Comey ultimately admitted to leaking at least one memo which contained personal recollections of his conversations with the president, in hopes of launching a special probe into the president's allege

The current crisis surrounding Qatar represents the most severe conflict among Gulf Arab states since the end of the Cold War. While these oil-rich, autocratic OPEC members have historically been at the most allies of convenience united by common fears (USSR, Saddam Hussein, Iran, etc.), their mutual mistrust has arguably never escalated to the point of demanding to what amounts to a complete surrender by one of its members. Several interesting features of this crisis immediately jump out. First of all, the breaking off of diplomatic relations by Saudi Arabia and several other major regional powers including Egypt, and depriving Qatar of the ability to use land and air transport routes through or over the territory of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, including Egypt came suddenly and without any warning. There was no ongoing visible dispute between Qatar and any of its neighbors, no major recent provocative policy moves. This suggests it was a premeditated and planned move b

FILE IMAGE The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the National Defense Forces (NDF) are attempting to separate Jobar and Zamalka areas in eastern Damascus countryside. They have advanced along the M5 highway and claimed capturing some buildings in the process. Clashes have also continued in Ayn Tarma. Faylaq Al-Rahman and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are two militant groups opposing the SAA and the NDF in the area.

FILE IMAGE A Russian military adviser, Nikolay Afanasov, has been killed as a result of mortar shelling from militants in Hama province, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday. The captain was tasked with training Syrian ground forces. He was granted a state decoration posthumously. According to official statements, 34 Russian military servicemen have been killed since the start of the operation in Syria. Meanwhile, according to some sources, a notable number of Russian private military contractors also operate in the country. A total number of casualties among them is unknown.

A leading Egyptian newspaper released a number of documents proving that Saudi Arabia’s new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his counterpart in Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan have long been supporting the ISIL and al-Qaeda terrorist groups’ global operations. “A leaked document in Qatar’s embassy and a letter to Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on October 26, 2016, show Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed’s support for certain key al-Qaeda members in the Arabian Peninsula,” Arabic language al-Badil newspaper wrote. Based on the documents, US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said that the Saudi and Abu Dhabi crown princes have established continued contacts with two Yemeni nationals, namely Ali Abkar al-Hassan and Abdollah Faisal Ahdal, who are on the US blacklist of most wanted terrorists. The documents also revealed the detailed activities and operations of the two Yemeni nationals in support of the

In a bizarre diplomatic development, none other than the state of Israel has branded billionaire philanthropist George Soros, one of Hillary Clinton’s most generous donors, a “threat”, accusing him of “continuously undermining Israel’s democratically elected governments” and saying that Soros-funded organizations “defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself”. How did this escalation materialize? It started in Hungary, where as we have repeatedly documented, Soros has emerged as one of the government’s most visible adversaries. Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew who has spent a large part of his fortune funding pro-democracy and human rights groups even as he has  been accused of abusing taxpayer funds to organize the overthrow of “unfriendly” regimes , has repeatedly been targeted by Hungary’s right-wing government, in particular over his  support for sending more migrants into Europe . Most recently, Prime Minister Viktor Orban backed a campaign in which Soros

© AFP 2017/ ISIS confirms that the terrorist group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, Al Sumaria TV channel has reported citing own source in the Iraqi province of Nineveh. According to the TV channel, ISIS has released a statement for its members confirming the death of al-Baghdadi. The ISIS-linked news agency of Amaq has not released any statement on the issue. In June reports appeared that al-Baghdadi was allegedly eliminated as a result of a Russian Aerospace Forces strike on a militant command post south of the Syrian city of Raqqah in late May. However, so far, there has been no evidence confirming these claims.

FILE IMAGE A report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed that several Arab units from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have withdrawn from the battle of Raqqa after disagreements with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). According to the report, the “Elite Forces” that follow the Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba and is considered to be among the few publicly Saudi-backed groups are among the withdrawing groups. According to the SOHR, the “Elite Forces” withdrew its fighters from Al-Mashbal and Al-Sinaa districts, the Bab Baghdad area and the  Old Raqqa area in Raqqa city to the Al-Hamrat area in the eastern Raqqa countryside. However, negotiations are under way between the “Elite Forces” and the SDF to return to battle. From its side, SDF sources claimed that the faction was excluded from the battle because of the bad behavior of its fighters in the front, and its withdrawal from some “strategic point” on front lines with ISIS. The SDF also claimed that th