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Syria’s Kurds Are Stronger Than Ever. That May Not Be Enough.
Trump’s newly released National Security Strategy offers the clearest lens for understanding why northeast Syria’s political options are foreclosing. The document is not a Syria policy memo, but it establishes…
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Arivan
US House Repeal of Caesar Sanctions Is a Major Win for Ahmed al-Sharaa – Here Is Why
The US House of Representatives has passed a repeal of the Caesar sanctions on Syria as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Despite earlier reports that any…
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Arivan
Iraq Posts 8.8 Trillion Dinar Deficit in First Nine Months of 2025 as Wage Bill and Pensions Surge
Iraq’s Ministry of Finance close the first three quarters of 2025 with a budget deficit of 8.81 trillion dinars, as total government expenditure of 99.98 trillion dinars outstripped revenues of…
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Arivan
A Pipeline Uday Hussein Built to Evade Sanctions Now Bankrolls Syria’s Kurds
The SDF-led administration in northeast Syria has increased its oil sales to Kurdistan Region buyers, rising from roughly 5,000–7,000 barrels per day in August to nearly 20,000 per day. The…
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Arivan
Iraq’s Shia Bloc Narrows Prime Minister Race, but Real Fight Is Behind Closed Doors
According to a well-informed Iraqi Shia source, the Coordination Framework, which encompasses all pro-Iran Shia blocs and collectively holds some 170 parliamentary seats, narrowed its list of prime ministerial candidates…
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Arivan
China Quietly Builds a Cultural Beachhead in the Kurdistan Region
China is quietly building cultural institutions in the Kurdistan Region, following a pattern seen in other parts of the world. Over the past two months, Beijing has partnered with the…
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Arivan
Will Turkey Let Mazloum Abdi and Ilham Ahmed Visit Ocalan on Imrali soon?
According to the official summary of the Turkish parliamentary peace commission’s visit to Abdullah Ocalan, when he was asked about SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, Ocalan confirmed that Abdi is “close…
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Arivan
Iraq’s Hezbollah Freeze Becomes Ammunition in an Intra-Shia War
After the Iraqi government’s Committee for Freezing Terrorists’ Funds published a list of entities whose assets were to be frozen as “participants in terrorist acts” – a list that included…
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Arivan
As Turkey Courts Ocalan, an Old Kurdish Ally Finds Itself on the Outside
Masoud Barzani’s weekend visit to Turkey’s Kurdish border province of Sirnak has triggered an unusually public confrontation between his office and Turkey’s leading nationalist politician, Erdogan ally Devlet Bahceli, exposing…
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Arivan
Why the Lajan–Lanaz Protests Matter: Refinery, Tribe and Power in Kurdistan’s KDP Heartland
In recent days, a small village west of Erbil has turned into one of the most sensitive flashpoints in the Kurdistan Region. Protests by residents of Lajan, a Harki tribal…
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