'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a meeting Thursday at the White House, is expected to urge President Obama to arm the Syrian opposition and enforce a "no-fly" zone in an effort to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
As President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai meet at the White House Friday morning, big questions about the future of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan will be on the table.
All U.S. troops could withdraw from Afghanistan next year if enough progress has been made against al Qaeda or if the Afghan government does not grant immunity to American forces after the end of their combat mission in 2014, the Obama administration says.
A Pentagon report on Afghanistan says enemy attacks have increased slightly since last year and the Taliban will try to reclaim lost territory as coalition forces withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014.
The White House flatly rejected calls from House conservatives to halt U.S. aid to Egypt after a slow response from Cairo in rebuking violent attacks on the U.S. Embassy there Tuesday night.
Western nations preparing to withdraw from combat in Afghanistan increasingly are alarmed by Afghan security forces turning their weapons on allied troops, attacks that the Taliban claim as proof of their sway over local troops.
The United States on Monday stood by its hands-off policy toward Iraq after more than 100 Iraqis died in a wave of 37 coordinated terrorist attacks across the country — the most intense assault since American forces left seven months ago.
A dramatic uptick in violence and political instability in Iraq has raised fears that Baghdad once again is tilting toward civil war.
A dramatic uptick in violence and political instability in Iraq have raised fears that Baghdad once again is tilting toward civil war.
The long-term partnership that President Obama signed with the Afghan government commits the U.S. to a role in the troubled nation for at least a dozen more years, leaving critics fuming over the uncertain costs of a conflict that already has stretched for a decade.
U.S., Afghan and Taliban officials this week have offered contradicting accounts about the purpose of the Taliban establishing an office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar.
The small boats, minisubs and guerrilla tactics of an Iranian militia pose the greatest threat to oil shipping in the Persian Gulf, where even a single incident would send oil prices spiraling upward, analysts say.
With missile batteries, fleets of attack boats and stocks of naval mines, Iran can disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz but probably cannot completely shut down the world's most important oil route, military analysts say. The question for Iran's leadership is whether it is worth the heavy price.
U.S. officials condemned Thursday's wave of bombings that killed at least 69 people in Baghdad and fed fears that renewed sectarian violence will fill a security vacuum created by the departure of the last U.S. combat troops from Iraq on Sunday.
As one Arab ruler after another confronts violent protests at home, Morocco has bucked the trend: King Mohammed VI has sidestepped calls for regime change with preemptive concessions to diminish his own power.
Anthony Cordesman, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Obama administration "has had to listen a great deal more carefully as it examines its options [in Syria]."
Turkey's Erdogan to press Obama to do more for Syrian rebels →
"A shift in U.S. policy will have to wait on either the failure of talks with Syria, that the U.S. and Russia are attempting to organize, or on the fact that it becomes clear that those talks can't occur," Mr. Cordesman said.
Turkey's Erdogan to press Obama to do more for Syrian rebels →
