Turkey Live Coverage (21 May): Regional and Global Dimensions of "Terrorism"

1630 GMT: After the Kurdistan Regional Government had announced a deal with Ankara that would allow them to export oil through Turkey and on to the international market, bypassing Baghdad; the central Iraqi government warned Arbil and said that the deals must abide by the constitution and laws that govern relations between Baghdad and the Kurdish north. 

1525 GMT: Turkish police detained three suspects for their suspected involvement in a plot to abduct a defected Syrian colonel who fled to Turkey.

1440 GMT: A special ops team officer was killed and five other security personnel were wounded in a clash with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Kulp, a district of Diyarbakır province.

As known, PKK members had kidnapped the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Kulp branch head Veysel Çelik earlier.

1120 GMT: The Turkish daily Radikal claims that President Obama, during the Chicago Summit, has ordered the handover of operational control of the early warning radar system to NATO.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Amidst the Assassination Rumors, 60 Die

An anti-regime protest on Sunday night, with a song dedicated to the dead of Homs, in Mare near Aleppo in Syria

See also Syria Video Feature: What is the State of the Opposition?
Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime's Strategy of Rolling Detention
Sunday's Syria Live Coverage: Obama Says "Assad Must Go" --- But How?

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1939 GMT: Iraq. The central government warned authorities in the Kurdish region on Monday that their oil deals with Turkey must have Baghdad’s approval.

On Sunday, Iraqi Kurds announced a deal with Ankara that would allow them to export oil through Turkey to the international market, bypassing Baghdad.

The national government says the region has no right to sign deals unilaterally and that exports must go through state-run pipelines, but Kurds argue that the Constitution gives them the right to sign deals without consulting Baghdad.

Since the 2003 war that toppled Saddam Hussein, the Kurds have signed scores of oil deals. The central governmet considers the deals illegal and has blacklisted the companies involved.

In early 2011, the two sides agreed that the Kurds would send the oil to Baghdad, which would sell it, with an even split of the revenues. But last month the Kurds halted oil exports over a payment row

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Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers

See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers (19 May)

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Our recurring feature in which EA readers use the Comments section to bring in the latest news and thoughts from social media....

Syria Live Coverage: Obama Says "Assad Must Go" --- But How?

A Free Syrian Army officer claims the assassination of several top officials of the Assad regime (see 0630 GMT)

See also Algeria Video Feature: The Uprising That Wasn't
Bahrain Live Coverage: Regime Says, "This Protest Good, This Protest Bad"
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Shelling in the Morning, Protests in the Afternoon

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1626 GMT: Syria. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria claims 28 people have died today, including 19 in Hama Province.

United Nations observers moving through the rubble of Rastan:

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Shelling in the Morning, Protests in the Afternoon

Video of this morning's explosion in Deir Ez Zor in Syria

See also Bahrain Live Coverage: The Many 10,000s Marching
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Students Rise in Aleppo

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1535 GMT: Yemen. Officials have said at least 22 insurgents and 12 Yemeni soldiers were killed in clashes and air strikes overnight in a regime offensive in the south of the country.

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Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers

See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers (18 May)

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Our recurring feature in which EA readers use the Comments section to bring in the latest news and thoughts from social media....

The Latest from Iran (18 May): Helping Damascus

The regime-supported rally denouncing the US and Saudi Arabia over Bahrain (see 1359 GMT)

See also Iran Special: The Nuclear Scientist, WikiLeaks, and the Executed Kickboxer
Iran Feature: How Tehran is Shipping Syria's Oil
The Latest from Iran (17 May): Arms to Syria?

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1948 GMT: The Bahrain Card. More about the regime's propaganda offensive based on the (now dormant) Saudi initative for "union" with Bahrain....

One of the Tehran Friday Prayers leaders, Ayatollah Emami Kashani, has said that the Bahraini people, "thanks to their alertness", will not allow the US "and its mercenaries" to implement the union.

Far more colourful is the declaration of the head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, “Al Khalifa and Al Saud regimes should come to realize that their American masters are simply looking for new lackeys in the region. What happened ultimately to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Saddam Hussein, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and other dictators, now awaits them.”

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Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers

See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers (17 May)

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Our recurring feature in which EA readers use the Comments section to bring in the latest news and thoughts from social media....

Iran Feature: How Tehran is Shipping Syria's Oil (Saigol)

>An oil tanker belonging to Iran's state-owned shipping line has been switching flags and using multiple companies to transport crude from Syria to Iran, illustrating how Tehran is helping to sidestep international efforts to choke the finances of Bashar al-Assad, Syrian president.

Documents obtained by the Financial Times show the vessel, operated by the Islamic Republic International Shipping Lines, sailed from Syria to the Gulf of Oman and then Iran, using different flags and changing owners.

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Syria Snap Analysis: Lessons from the Resignation of the Syrian National Council's Burhan Ghalioun

See also Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Assad Says, "No Chaos, Please"

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The crisis marches on, regardless of how well, or poorly, things go in the expatriate community. Politically, the status quo is unlikely to change in the near-future. Do the Syrians, or the international actors, really want to latch their entire plan to end the crisis on a strong, officially-recognised leadership? If so, how will that plan adapt if the Syrian crisis deepens, or even closes in on a conclusion, before the legitimacy of that leadership is established inside the country?

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