Palestine, Syria
Moscow and Tehran behind Syria-Hamas reconciliation

The Agencies' Gazette
CIA's HR woes, Hamas and Taliban in Istanbul, Tbilisi's oligarchs, France's DPR, China worries Russia, repatriated Afghans

Appointments, reforms and the issues at stake: every Monday, Intelligence Online serves up snippets big and small from the global intelligence community. This week we hone in on Istanbul, Washington, Paris, Moscow, Kabul and Tbilisi.

United States CIA experimenting to solve HR crisis

Turkey/Palestine/Afghanistan Istanbul hosts Hamas-Taliban rapprochement

Georgia Tbilisi looks into its oligarchs

France DPR still not entitled to know about operations in progress

Russia Moscow's foreign affairs ministry reassesses view of China

Afghanistan/Europe Europe's greater numbers of repatriated Afghans

Iraq, Turkey
Hakan Fidan makes his moves on Iraq's complex political chessboard

The Turkish spymaster, tasked with meeting Iraqi politicians, now stands accused of interfering in the country's internal affairs. But this hasn't stopped him discreetly calling for the formation of a government that would guarantee Ankara's security and economic interests.

Syria, Turkey
Turkish and Syrian spy chiefs Hakan Fidan and Ali Mamlouk talk again at Russia's initiative

Keen to play the role of mediator between Turkey and Syria, Russia sponsored a new meeting between the spy chiefs of the two countries, which have been at daggers drawn since 2011. The results were not convincing but the meeting at least allowed Ankara and Damascus to set out their demands.