Middle East

Turkey will send migrants back to EU if visa-free deal fails – Erdogan party’s MP
Ankara will send migrants back to the EU if the European Parliament won’t grant visa-free travel to Turkish citizens, warned Burhan Kuzu, a high-ranking deputy for Turkey’s ruling AKP party and former adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.   [...]
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Where does the money come from? Erdogan children’s immeasurable wealth questioned by German Bild
The German newspaper Bild has raised questions as to how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s children amassed their vast wealth, including one fortune worth tens of millions, when their father only earns some €50 thousand a year as head of state. [...]
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‘The ultimate war crime… is the war of aggression itself’
There is a kind of drip-drip strategy of the Western media to make a correlation in people’s minds between atrocities and the Syrian government, Dan Glazebrook, political writer and journalist, told RT. An air strike on a refugee camp in the Syrian town of Sarmada, which is close to the Turkish border, has left at least 30 people dead and dozens more injured. [...]
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Why Merkel is Letting Erdogan “Make Fool of Her”
Europe has to make concessions to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan because Brussels has no other option in the light of the ongoing migrant crisis, a French journalist said in an interview with Atlantico. After German comedian Jan Boehmermann in his show mocked Turkish President Recep [...]
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EU Commission backs visa-free travel deal with Turkey
The European Commission has given its support to a visa-free travel deal with Turkey after Ankara threatened to back out of a landmark migration deal. It is proposed to lift visa requirements by the end of June. The decision was confirmed by European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager on Twitter. [...]
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‘Inconsistency & Cowardice’: German activists decry Merkel’s collaboration with ‘despot Erdogan’
Dozens of pro-Kurdish activists alongside members of Germany’s Pirate Party have held a rally outside the Chancellery in Berlin rejecting Angela Merkel’s cooperation with the Turkish President, which they claim made her an accomplice in human rights violations. Gathered outside the seat of the Chancellor, demonstrators wielding Kurdish flags and banners were addressed by Bruno Kramm, the he [...]
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Russia signs contracts worth $950mn to rebuild Syria
Damascus and Moscow have signed nearly a billion dollars worth of agreements to rebuild war-torn Syria, according to the Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi. The two countries intend to develop energy, trade, finance and other sectors of the economy. [...]
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‘It’s tragic US continues series of experiments in Syria’ – ex-UN Assistant Sec-Gen
Barack Obama wants to leave a legacy that shows some sign of a successful presidency. However he continues to experiment in Syria, which may hamper the Geneva peace talks, says Hans-Christof Von Sponeck, former UN Assistant Secretary-General. [...]
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9/11 families hit Obama for ‘siding with Saudi Arabia,’ want secret  report declassified
President Barack Obama is facing increased pressure due to a renewed effort to make a secret Congressional report public that may describe links between Saudi Arabia and the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Over the past week, families of 9/11 victims have criticized President Obama because [...]
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UN Considers Golan Heights Illegally Annexed – de Mistura
The official UN answer to the Golan Heights issue is outlined in Security Council resolutions that make clear that the area is illegally annexed, UN's Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Monday. Earlier in the day, head of the Syrian government delegation at the Geneva talks Bashar Jaafari strongly criticized Israel for holding an unprecedented cabinet meeting in the Golan Heights. [...]
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Bernie Sanders: US “Can’t Be Blackmailed” by Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Arabian government has threatened to sell of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets should Congress pass a bi-partisan bill led by US Senator Chuck Schumer that could hold the kingdom responsible for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, The New York Times reported Friday. [...]
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Barack, Hillary and the Libya Crime
It took two warmongering politicians to unleash the “shit storm” that the U.S. created in Libya: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Yet, Clinton, the number two player in the aggression, takes all the weight, while Obama acts as if he was nowhere near the scene of the war crime. Obama takes no responsibility for the terror he has loosed on Africa. “Boko Haram’s strength and ability to te [...]
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The ‘Credibility’ Illusion
The Obama administration protects its “credibility” by refusing to budge on its claims about the 2013 Syria-sarin case or the 2014 plane shoot-down in eastern Ukraine even as the evidence shifts, writes Robert Parry. What surprised me most about the Iraq War wasn’t how wrong the expectation of happy Iraqis showering American troops with flowers was or even how badly the war would turn out [...]
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Evidence Points to the CIA Targeting Assad, Not Daesh in Syria
Washington has jumped at the opportunity to provide massive amounts of weapons to Syria's so-called moderate rebels amid the ongoing ceasefire; it seems that the White House is not bothered by the fact that half of its arms have found their way into the hands of al-Qaeda, Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams note. [...]
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Germany grants Turkish request to allow for possible prosecution of comedian who joked about Erdogan
The German government has granted a Turkish request to allow the possible prosecution of a TV comedian who wrote a crude poem about Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Ankara has demanded to have comedian Jan Boehmermann prosecuted for insulting a foreign head of state. [...]
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Obama’s ‘Red Line’ on Russian Su-30 Sale to Iran Unlikely to Hold
The Obama administration plans to prevent Russia from selling its Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters to Iran by vetoing the approval for the possible deal at the UN Security Council, but the US president could well cross his latest self-imposed "red line" like he's done in the past, Washington Times columnist L. Todd Wood asserted. "I doubt that the Kremlin will be stopped in their desire to ear [...]
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Russian Companies to Get Priority in Syria Reconstruction – Prime Minister
The Russian companies will be given a priority in the restoration of the country following the civil war, Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader Halqi said Sunday as quoted by a Russian lawmaker. In March, Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Damascus would lean primarily on Russia, China and Iran in rebuilding the country after five years of destruction. [...]
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Vicious Cycle: Why It is Time for Washington to Get Out of the Middle East
The United States has found itself bogged down in the Middle Eastern conflicts; two questions then arise: why Washington can't win and since it has not won, why it can't get out of the Mideast quagmire, American historian Andrew J. Bacevich asks.   [...]
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Trial of Saddam Hussein was victor’s justice’ – Ex-tribunal judge to RT
The former chief judge that presided over Saddam Hussein’s trial told RT in an exclusive interview how the tribunal, which was dependent on the US, lacking in legitimacy, and overshadowed by the killing of lawyers, sentenced the Iraqi strongman to death. In November of 2006, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging three years after a US-led “coalition of the willing” invaded Iraq [...]
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US reporters ignore first journalist tour of liberated Palmyra organized by Russian military – MoD
The Russian military have given access to journalists from 11 countries to the liberated Syrian city of Palmyra. Moscow noted the absence of American journalists in the group. The group of 27 media professionals from Germany, Italy, Belgium, China, Serbia and other nations were transported from the Russian military base in Khmeimim to Palmyra on Thursday. [...]
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Russia & Iran negotiate canal from Caspian Sea to Persian Gulf
Moscow and Tehran are holding talks on digging a ship canal from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, said Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanai, speaking to students in St. Petersburg. Any canal linking the two has to go through Iran. "Yes, this issue is being discussed", said the ambassador on Thursday without specifying details, quoted by TASS. [...]
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Lebanon is being forced to collapse
Lebanon cannot stand on its feet anymore. It is overwhelmed, frightened and broke. It stands at the frontline, facing Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS/ISIL) in the east and north, hostile Israel in the south and the deep blue sea in the west. One and a half million (mostly Syrian) refugees are dispersed all over its tiny territory. [...]
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