Several top Christian Social Union officials have said their party, an ally to Angela Merkel’s CDU, is against a visa-free regime with Turkey and the prospects for its EU bid because Ankara plays “cat and mouse” and raises demands “like at a bazaar.” [...]

In accordance with the Syrian ceasefire, Russian aviation has virtually halted its air operations out of Hmeymim airbase, Canadian journalist Raymond Saint-Pierre reports. However, the Russian military mission remains active, delivering humanitarian aid, carrying out negotiations with village leaders, and urging Syrians not to leave their homeland. [...]

Imposing sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin is an "absurd" idea, Czech lawmaker Jiri Mastalka said. According to him, the initiative will bury the fragile peaceful process in Ukraine and Syria. "Imposing sanctions against a head of state would mean a deadlock in dialogue with Russia. [...]

The Washington and Moscow-sponsored truce in Syria may be the last chance for the country to stop the bloodshed, opposition groups said in a joint statement after a meeting at the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation. The leaders of several Syrian opposition groups as well as public and religious figures voiced support for the ongoing peace conference in Geneva [...]

The US-led coalition operating in Syria is playing a massive game of dress-up in the country, where “its immense but now stranded terrorist hordes” change their banners back and forth from Daesh to the so-called Free Syrian Army, seeking protection within the terms of the ceasefire, according to a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher. [...]

Erdogan’s Turkey this week diversified its rogue-state conduct from terror sponsorship to international bribery. The proceeds? Not bad earning, with $6.6 billion in “aid” extracted from the European Union. It’s supposed to be part of a groundbreaking deal to end the refugee crisis in Europe. [...]

Despite criticism from European officials over its crackdown on opposition media, the Turkish government has reportedly taken control of another news agency. It comes days after the seizure of the popular opposition newspaper Zaman. The news agency Cihan is believed to be close to US-based [...]

The EU-Turkey summit, held in an amicable atmosphere and resulting in an agreement to put an end to illegal immigration to Europe via Turkey, has been hailed as a major success. Not everyone is thrilled, however; journalist Paul Mason argues that "the sight of Europe's leaders kowtowing to the [...]

Russian military facilities are offering assistance to humanitarian organizations offering aid to people in Syria, saying their facilities and logistics specialists may be able to resolve the problems they face. The offer was made on Monday when the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the internationally sponsored truce between rebel groups and the Syrian government in Syria is mostly holdi [...]

A recent survey carried out in the United States and European countries shows that an overwhelming majority of US citizens do not believe that Europe is is playing an important role in the fight against Daesh terror group. /* */ [...]

The EU is ready to overlook the problems of Erdogan's Turkey because of its desperate desire to stop the flow of migrants into Europe, the Financial Times reported. The EU is willing to make a deal with Turkey at any price to stem the flow of migrants into Europe, despite misgivings about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's autocratic government, crackdown on the opposition and human rights abuses [...]

The Russian task force in Syria has demonstrated remarkable efficiency and professionalism, according to a German magazine citing confidential NATO analysis. The limited Russian contingent operating in Syria is outperforming the more widespread groupings of the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition, according to Germany’s FOCUS media outlet who came by the classified NATO document, which was pr [...]

Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists have pitched their camps right next to the border and receive regular supplies from the Turkish side, Syrian Kurdish forces told RT’s Lizzie Phelan, who traveled with YPG to investigate suspicious activity there. [...]

The response of Western governments and of the Western media to the Russian air operation in Syria was unanimous. All of them condemned it and all of them said it would fail. In the US there was much gloating talk — joined in by President Obama himself — about how the Russians had landed themselves in a quagmire. [...]

A Russian TV crew has managed to obtain video proof of Turkey’s increased military presence on the Syrian border, as it filmed fortifications and tanks on the frontier. The lodgments are heavily fortified by tanks and self-propelled guns, REN-TV crew reported from the scene. [...]

Turkey’s “provocative” military buildup on the border and shelling of the Syrian territory could thwart the truce and disrupt the peace process in the Arab Republic, said the head of the Russian ceasefire monitoring center Lt. Gen. Sergey Kuralenko. [...]

Facing an increase in domestic terrorism, Turkish President Erdogan's government is scrambling to fine-tune its terrorist prevention methods and plans to purchase a number of new intelligence and surveillance systems. Last October, suicide bombers killed over 100 peace activists in Ankara. In January, a radical Islamist killed ten in Istanbul. Earlier this month, an attacker killed nearly 30 pe [...]

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair kept members of his cabinet and numerous high-profile Whitehall officials in the dark over his plans to create a “regime change” in Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein, a new memoir has revealed. “Broken Vows,” a new book about the former PM by investigative journalist Tom Bower, reveals that Blair had decided as early as 2002 that Saddam Hussein should be remo [...]

The Obama administration, eager to assuage Saudi Arabia’s anger over the Iran nuclear deal and the failure to achieve “regime change” in Syria, has turned a blind eye to Riyadh’s savaging of Yemen, even though that is helping Al Qaeda militants expand their territory, writes Jonathan Marshall. For nearly a year, the Obama administration has turned a blind eye to the humanitarian catastr [...]

Russia’s military have stopped all airstrikes on those areas and armed groups which joined the ceasefire in Syria, the General Staff has said at a briefing. "Russia has fully stopped carrying out airstrikes in the green zone - those areas and armed units that have sent us requests for a ceasefire," the chief of the main operations department of the Russian General Staff, Sergey Rudskoy, has t [...]

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has lashed out at remarks recently made by the US State Department’s deputy spokesman, who urged Russia to “put up or shut up” over Syria’s truce, calling them rude and offensive. [...]

The ceasefire deal worked out by Russia and the United States indicates that Washington does not intend to help Turkey, should it decide to send ground forces to Syria and accidentally clash with Russia, former US diplomat Jim Jatras told RT. [...]