Hot spots where war may break out or escalate in 2025
Balochistan – Iran and Pakistan
Balochistan is a little-known region spanning eastern Iran, western Pakistan, and southern Afghanistan. It is inhabited by the Baloch people, a unique nomadic ethno-linguistic group. Iran and Pakistan have struggled with insurgencies from the group for decades, embittered over a sense of disenfranchisement.
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Türkiye says its embassy in Damascus to open on Saturday (Anadolu Agency)
On the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime earlier this month in the face of rapid anti-regime advances, Fidan said Türkiye “paved the way for this to happen in a bloodless manner” by continuing to pursue talks with “two key actors,” referring to Russia and Iran.
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*Fidan said before the latest developments, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was controlling an area where 5 million Syrians were living and highlighted that they have gained experience in providing municipal services, education services, basic services, transportation and many other services in the past 5-6 years. [Idlib]
Related:
New Syria govt won’t recognise PKK/YPG terror group’s authority — Fidan (TRT)
Read More »Syria’s Rojava Revolution Is in Grave Danger (Reason magazine)
If the Kurdish-Arab alliance unravels, the U.S. military may decide to directly back Arab tribes as a bulwark against Iran and the Islamic State, according to Nicholas Heras, who has advised the U.S.-led military coalition in Syria and is now senior director for strategy at the nonprofit New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington. In 2019, when former President Donald Trump wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, the Trump administration considered a strategy of letting the Kurdish forces fall to Turkey and buying off Arab tribes.
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The United States has, directly and indirectly, backed all sides of the fight. Turkey is a NATO ally. Some of the SNA [Syrian National Army] units now attacking Kobane had received weapons and training from the CIA and the U.S. military. (After the Trump administration cut off support, a U.S. official condemned these same factions as “thugs, bandits, and pirates that should be wiped off the face of the earth,” and the Biden administration imposed human rights sanctions.) Meanwhile, several hundred U.S. troops are embedded with the SDF.
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In his Sunday victory speech about the fall of the Assad government, President Joe Biden said that he wanted to support an “independent, sovereign—an independent—independent—I want to say it again—sovereign Syria.” But U.S. policy at the moment seems to be creating the opposite: a Syria chopped up [Balkanization] by foreign powers.
Rojava is also known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
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Read More »Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed a new Navy chief (Rear Admiral Jose Ma. Ambrosio Ezpeleta) amid tensions in the South China Sea, which include a number of maritime drills which are perceived as provocations by Beijing. One such military exercise earlier this month, for instance, included drills to simulate seizing an island in the disputed South China Sea. Last month Manila held military exercises in the same Sea together with Canada, Japan, and the United States, as part of Exercise Sama Sama 2024. The Philippines are also officially expanding their maritime claims. These developments are all connected.
Philippines’ Aggressive Territorial Claims In South China Sea: A New Threat to Regional Stability (archived)
Related:
What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China
Brian Berletic, November 13 2024
In the weeks leading up to the 2024 US presidential election, Americans and many around the world invested hope that former-president and now President-elect Donald Trump would grind America’s wars abroad to a halt and instead invest in the United States itself.
The Trump Administration: From “No War Hawks” to ALL War Hawks
For the past eight years, the two major political parties have been gripped by a messy and ongoing realignment. It began with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, which was a major repudiation of the neoconservative-establishment coalition that had dominated the Republican Party since the presidency of George W. Bush.
Related:
The Return of Peace Through Strength: Making the Case for Trump’s Foreign Policy
Trump Frees Himself From Bolton – but Robert O’Brien Will Be Just as Bad
New national security adviser recently considered war to free prisoners in Iran
Dear Dr. Stein,
Up to last week, you graciously provided US voters with a clear, viable, electoral alternative to the twin war parties, namely, Democrats and Republicans. Regrettably, last Thursday, September 19th, your campaign issued a statement undermining your status as the “peace candidate.”
Open Letter to Dr. Jill Stein
March 10, 2024, RT.com
*(blog title updated from original published; blog version slightly longer)
-Eva Karene Bartlett
Following the February 29 Israeli slaughter of at least 115 starving Palestinians lined up for food aid, there was little or no outrage by the same Western media which would have howled if the perpetrator were Russia or Syria.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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