The families of the soldiers and policemen taken captive by militants in the northeastern border town of Arsal blocked on Wednesday several roads to pressure the authorities on meeting the demands of the abductors. The Dahr al-Baidar road that links Beirut and Mount Lebanon with the eastern Bekaa valley was blocked at the Falougha junction. […]

Vladimir Poutine, le président russe, s’est adressé à la Dūmā  relativement aux rapports tendus avec des minorités en Russie :   "En Russie chacun doit vivre comme des russes. N’importe quelle minorité, de n’importe où, s’il veut vivre en Russie, marcher et manger en Russie, devrait parler le russe et devrait respecter les lois russes. […]

Top 4 reasons to worry about President Obama Policy against ISIL

Source: Malek el Khazen

1.       US to arm inexperience Opposition to fight ISIL and Regime:

The US have trained and financed Iraqi army for almost a decade. Iraqi army was unable to fight against ISIL; many surrendered or deserted their posts and left all of the US arms to ISIL.

 Now sending arms to the Syrian opposition sounds a great idea, but unfortunately this opposition has not been trained, how can we expect this opposition to fight ISIL and the Assad regime?

2.       President Obama fail to mention Al Qaeda front in Syria and Iraq  known as Al Nusra front

We are still at war against al Qaeda. I do not understand how we can ignore them while eliminating ISIL. This campaign should target all fundamentalists.

3.       Somalia and Yemen very bad outcome

Somalia and Yemen are countries in complete chaos in the verse of having their regime collapse. It is a disaster to try and follow the same strategy in Iraq and Syria.

4.       Syrian opposition is divided into many groups and some groups do not want to fight ISIL

Many of the Syrian opposition groups oppose fighting ISIL or Nusra before completely eliminating the Assad Regime. How can the US count on an opposition that does not want to fight?

  Families of Lebanese troops abducted by Syria-based militants on Sunday threatened to escalate their protests across Lebanon to press for the release of their loves ones, as some of them accused Hizbullah of obstructing negotiations between the Lebanese government and the kidnappers. “We have been giving negotiations a chance but we haven’t sensed any […]

  Noted French Economist, legislator, and writer Claude Frederic Bastiat is famous for saying, "If goods don’t cross borders, armies will." Nowhere does this appear more true than in the war-torn Middle East, where Israel and its Arab neighbors have been at each other’s throats for over 60 years.  Here’s an example: In 2012, Egypt, […]

  BEIRUT: With Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai’s election as president Sunday, Afghanistan’s first lady is officially a Lebanese-American. Rula Saade Ghani and Afghanistan’s President-elect met in Lebanon, where they both attended the American University of Beirut. The couple have two children together. (Link)

  If identity crisis is among the most common pathologies suffered by Lebanese, Nayla Romanos Iliya has found the remedy, or at least the one for her. After living abroad for more than 20 years, Romanos Iliya rekindled an appreciation of her Lebanese heritage by creating sculptures based on the Phoenician alphabet.Born and raised in […]

Business Insider: Armin Rosen

Over 120 people were reportedly killed during fighting in a Middle Eastern capital on Friday, but it wasn’t Baghdad or Damascus. With a Shi’ite rebel movement marching on Sa’ana, Yemen now seems like it’s primed to be the next country in the region to stare down the prospect of violent collapse.

  Warnings that ISIS may be plotting to attack Pope Francis during his visit to mostly Muslim Albania Sunday have been shrugged off by the Vatican. Despite warnings from Iraq’s ambassador to the Holy See that the 77-year-old could be in danger — and reports in the Italian media of new ISIS recruits returning from the […]