the refugees, as well as overthrowing separate ISIS and former Jabhat al-Nusrah terrorist entities.

The antiterrorist coalition it created in the autumn of 2014 to fight ISIS proved ineffective because it confined itself to air strikes against highly mobile and well-trained militants. It is increasingly clear that the US has no Syria strategy of its own.

We have a situation in which Russia, the United States and regional players understand that they need to adjust their approaches. Russian and American diplomats have gone to great lengths to hammer out the Geneva agreements.

War is always a tragedy and human suffering. However, quite often a different logic is observed behind the words about caring for peaceful citizens: attempts to stop Syria’s purification from the contamination of terrorism.

Last Sunday, ISIS* fighters captured the city of Palmyra in Syria’s Homs province, which was previously liberated by Syrian forces in March with support from the Russian Aerospace Forces. According to Valdai Club expert Irina Zvyagelskaya, the loss of Palmyra is testament to serious problems in the

The system of power in Syria will collapse without al-Assad, including the army. At the same time Al-Assad’s legitimacy is questionable.

The father of a jihadi Brighton family has been found guilty of encouraging Islamist violence in a speech at his local mosque. Abubaker Deghayes, 53, promoted" jihad by sword" when he addressed worshippers at the Brighton Mosque and Muslim Community Centre. The defendant, who originally comes from Libya, had denied intending to encourage terrorism in his speech to around 50 people, including children and young adults.On Wednesday, a jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of the charge.It can no

Military-religious challenge to the Saudi dynasty from the new caliphate has cast a new light on the Saudi leadership in the Arab world. An indicative event happened at the February 25-26 conference of the Valdai Discussion Club entitled The Middle East: From Violence to Security.

A delegation of the oppositional Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HNC) arrived in Moscow on October 26 for talks with top Russian diplomats on a number of issues, including:intensifying efforts to form a constitutional committee, which should draft a new constitution for Syria, continuing the int

After seven years of the civil war, “the Syrian knot” reveals new, deeply hidden loops, which time and again complicate its unraveling. Paradoxically, there are uncovered by some of the positive developments in the solution of the Syrian conflict.