This article is published in association with United Nations. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing another $2 million in emergency funds to support health systems in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria as strikes against Iran by the US and Israeli continue amid counterstrikes across the Gulf and wider region by Tehran. The funds based on […]Middle East crisis: UN health agency releases emergency funds for Lebanon, Iraq, Syria
March 16, 2026 by Leave a Comment
This article is published in association with United Nations. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing another $2 million in emergency funds to support health systems in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria as strikes against Iran by the US and Israeli continue amid counterstrikes across the Gulf and wider region by Tehran. The funds based on […]Iraq: UN mission ends, with pledge of continued support
December 3, 2025 by Leave a Comment
This article is published in association with United Nations. The recent parliamentary elections in Iraq mark a fitting end to the work of the UN Mission in the country, the Security Council heard on Tuesday. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Mohammed Al Hassan, briefed members for the last time as the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) prepares to conclude its mandate on […]Iraq unveils historic migration plan to boost development and stability
August 28, 2025 by Leave a Comment
This article is published in association with United Nations. Iraq has taken an historic step with the launch of its first ever national migration plan, designed to promote safe, orderly and regular pathways for Iraqis returning home and around 370,000 migrants living and working inside the country. Unveiled on Wednesday, it creates new opportunities for work, […]Iraq: How the world helped Mosul rise from the rubble of war
February 7, 2025 by 1 Comment
This article is published in association with United Nations. Terrorist fighters with ISIL/Da’esh invaded Iraq’s second city of Mosul in 2014, destroying centuries-old landmarks in a bid to erase its history and impose a bleak and repressive future on the nearly two million people who lived there. Now, with UN support, Mosul has risen from the […]Coronavirus global response: EU Humanitarian Air Bridge to Iraq and new funding
July 27, 2020 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The latest in a series of EU Humanitarian Air Bridge flights with over 40 tons of medical and emergency supplies to reinforce the humanitarian response has arrived in Iraq. The flight is part of the ongoing Team Europe support to deliver assistance to the […]Statement by President von der Leyen on recent developments related to Iran and Iraq
January 7, 2020 by 1 Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. “After recent developments in Iraq, now it is important to halt the cycle of violence so that one more action does not give rise to the next one, and instead space is again created for diplomacy. Europe has a special responsibility here. As […]France, Germany challenge Trump’s America on Iran and the reign of the dollar
November 22, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last week, the French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged the US President Trump by deciding to create a real European army. This week, the two European leaders said they are seriously working on the project to build a financial/trade-clearing mechanism, meant to override the American sanctions against Iran. In both […]Erdogan vies to become Middle East Sultan over Khashoggi’s killing
November 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
It’s plain by now that the Turkish ‘Sultan’, President Tayyip Erdogan vies to directly implicate Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud or MbS, the actual ruler of his country in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The victim was for decades a very high placed systemic journalist in Riyadh, loyally serving the […]Trump fines China with $50 billion a year plus some more…
August 6, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The New Yorker President of ‘America first’, Donald Trump, has figured out the cash China has to pay the US every year, in order to continue exporting her products to the largest market of the globe. It’s something like the ‘protection’ cash New York shopkeepers have to pay the gangs in order to get on […]‘Worst devastation I have seen,’ says UN refugee envoy Angelina Jolie, as she visits West Mosul
June 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. After visiting the shattered streets of West Mosul over the weekend, the long-standing United Nations Refugee Agency envoy, Angelina Jolie, said that she had never seen such devastation, in her 17-years of working in the field. Mosul was liberated by an Iraqi government-led coalition […]A new catastrophic phase in the Syrian carnage
April 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment
At a time when Donald Trump, the US President of ‘America first’ had just urged his military to leave Syria, the gas attack in Douma, near Damascus seems to change the prospect for Washington abandoning this country to Assad, Putin, Erdogan and the Iranians. Last Saturday, more than 60 people died and about 1000 were […]Trump reshapes the Middle East at the expenses of Europe
January 25, 2018 by 3 Comments
Trump’s completely unwarranted aggressiveness towards the rest of the world took a violent thrust this week. His vice President Mike Pence speaking at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, announced a speed-up of the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The move is now to be completed before the end of next […]Erdogan’s Turkey in dire straits for flip flop policies in the Middle East
January 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last week a US federal court convicted Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive of Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank. This is a major financial institution of this country, controlled directly by the government. Attila found guilty on five accounts, for evading the American sanctions imposed on Iran. Most of those punitive measures were lifted in April 2015, in […]A male gynecologist in Iraq: red line violated
November 21, 2017 by Leave a Comment
This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Mr Hussein Ali AlShadeedi, a sixth-year medical student at the University of Kufa in Iraq. Mr Hussein Ali AlShadeedi is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA). The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect […]Destabilizing Lebanon after burning Syria; plotting putsch at home: King and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
November 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last week the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, son of King Salman placed the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Al-Hariri under house arrest in Riyadh and forced him to resign his premiership. The Sunni Lebanese premier has a double citizenship, Lebanese and Saudi Arabian. His family has extended business interests and wealth […]Dangerous Trumpism in the Middle East with an anti-European edge
May 25, 2017 by Leave a Comment
All main stream media analysts agree that the US President Donald Trump last Sunday 21 May in Riyadh, completely reversed his predecessor Barack Obama’s Middle East policy. He made it evidently biased, aggressive and dangerously personal, despite the extensive use of the word ‘peace’. In a matter of hours Trump endorsed one hundred per cent […]Elections in Europe: No risks for the EU, leaders readying to face Trump-Brexit
February 23, 2017 by 1 Comment
Some political analysts in mainland Europe but many more in Britain and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in the US, have rushed to call 2017 the year that can make or break the European Union. They basically argue that the three crucial legislative elections due in Holland next month, in France in […]Turkey caught in a vicious Syrian circle bringing terror and war at home
January 9, 2017 by 1 Comment
The Turkish government, under the iron hand of the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, felt obliged to further challenge the Americans in the troubled region of the Middle East this past week. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak and Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin questioned the presence of the US led coalition forces at the key air […]Fear casts again a cold, ugly shadow over Europe; Turkey sides with Russia
December 22, 2016 by 1 Comment
The deadly attack in a Berlin Christmas market and the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara, may not be closely connected or plotted by related terrorist circles, but they aim at the same target; to terrify entire populations and block what could lead to a solution in the Syrian mess. Add to that the […]A shortened EU Summit admits failures, makes risky promises
December 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Thursday, 15 December, the cut down to one day European Summit, confirmed that Europe continues on the wrong path. The 27 + 1 leaders acknowledged the complete failure of key policies regarding Syria and Turkey and kept making promises to Ukraine and Georgia they cannot honor. Unfortunately, Brussels refuses to learn the lessons still […]Turkey’s Erdogan provokes the US and the EU by serving jihadists and trading on refugees
December 1, 2016 by 3 Comments
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, after having declared war against the political, judiciary and civic structures of his own country, employs the same belligerent tactics in the domain of foreign policy. He now threatens to send to Europe 3 million refugees and immigrants who are stationed in Turkey. True, more than three million people, […]ISIS fighters fleeing Mosul for Syria can topple Assad. Why did the US now decide to uproot them from Iraq?
October 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The failure of the US, EU, Turkey and Saudi Arabia joint strategy in the Middle East seems to lead to a complete destruction of any political, economic and state infrastructure in the region, after having failed to fulfill its targets. Just think that the main target of the foreign involvement in Syria was to topple […]The impossible end of the war in Syria
September 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The United States and the Russian governments without the slightest remorse announced that it was with their guns the Syrians have been killing each other for the last six years. This is the translation in plain English of last weekend’s news, which is that Washington and Moscow agreed on a truce in Syria, after very […]Europe bows to Turkey’s rulers, sends Syrian refugees back to chaos
April 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Saturday we learned from his own lips that the President of the European Council Donald Tusk has “thick skin”. Of course, people who follow the political day-to-day of the Council already knew it. Tusk made this statement last Saturday from Turkey, a country where thick skin politicians are in abundance. The President of the […]EU-Turkey deal on migrants kicked off but to who’s interest?
April 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday, 4 April, Greece and Turkey kicked off the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement. For migrants and refugees alike it foresees deportation from the Greek islands to Turkey, just some dangerous miles eastwards, over rough sea straights at times. Ankara is to receive from Brussels € 3+3 billion for that. During the past twelve […]US – Russia bargain on Syria, Ukraine but EU kept out
March 31, 2016 by Leave a Comment
President Bashar al-Assad’s regular Syrian army aided by Lebanon Hezbollah fighters plus some Iranians, and of course under the air cover of Russia’s fighter jets last week pushed the ISIS murderers out of the ancient city of Palmyra. Reportedly, a Russian ground special force played also a role in this decisive battle, that probably constitutes […]For how long will terror and economic stagnation be clouding the European skies?
March 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Some days ago the European statistical service, Eurostat confirmed that the inflation rate in the euro area for February was well into the negative part of the chart at -0.2%. This is an infallible sign that Eurozone remains in the stagnation or even the recession region of the economic cycle for a sixth year in […]Is there a chance for the West to win the war on terror?
March 24, 2016 by Leave a Comment
On the night of 13 November 2015 in Paris, after the ISIS operatives had hit almost simultaneously a concert hall, a major football stadium and some restaurants and bars leaving 130 dead and hundreds injured, the French President Francois Hollande said “we are at war”. Last Tuesday morning the same kind of ‘armed forces’ and […]The 28 EU leaders unable to start a relevant debate on migration and Brexit
December 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The poor results of last week’s meeting of the 28 EU leaders are reflected in the triviality of the remarks by the Council President Donald Tusk, in summarizing the outcome of the 17 – 18 December gathering in Brussels. His most vivid comment was about the “hard work done and the extreme efficiency of the […]Unemployment and immigrants haunt the EU; who can offer relief?
December 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment
On Tuesday 1st December, Eurostat the EU statistical service reminded us all that in the euro area the October unemployment rate still remained in the double digit region with 10.7%. Understandably, this is the official percentage of people without a job, while the real unemployment rate may be double that, as this newspaper has proved, […]Drowning in the Mediterranean this summer? Many happy returns
August 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
This month the European Commission approved 23 multiannual national programs “under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF). The total funding for the agreed programs is approximately €2.4 billion, for the period 2014-2020… 22 national programs were already approved in March, and an additional 13 programs will be approved […]A few, or rather two, trade and economic alliances may rule our brave new world
June 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President together with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave a Press conference following the 23rd EU-Japan Summit which took place in Tokyo on 29 May. The focal point of the meeting was supposed to be the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two sides. However the EU dignitary spoke […]Why is the EU launching a doomed policy in stopping immigrant waves? What are the real targets?
May 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
For what it’s worth, the Libyan government, the one recognized by Europe and the West, rejected the EU plan to carry out military operations in the country’s territorial waters and soil against the traffickers of immigrants. This reaction by the one of the two Libyan governments is quite understandable, because it’s practically impossible to distinguish […]
