The World Humanitarian Summit wrapped up in Turkey's Istanbul on Tuesday, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatening the EU that Turkey would scupper the deal if Ankara was not granted its key demand of visa-free travel within the Union; Angela Merkel, in turn, warned that the demand is unlikely to be met.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned the EU that the Turkish parliament would block any laws related to the Turkey-EU deal on migrants, if Ankara was not granted its key demand of visa-free travel within the European Union.

"If that [visa free travel] is not what will happen... no decision and no law in the framework of the readmission agreement will come out of the parliament of the Turkish Republic," Erdogan said at the close of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul on Tuesday.

"Our foreign ministry, our EU affairs ministry will have discussions with the Europeans. If there is a result then great. If not, then I'm sorry," the Turkish president added.

Eurozone finance ministers have struck a deal with Greece and the International Monetary Fund to release over €10 billion in emergency bailout payments, much of which Athens will send straight back to its creditors to avert default in the summer.

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem confirmed that an agreement has been reached to greenlight €10.3billion ($11.5bn) in bailout loans to Greece. The bailout cash will be released in tranches, with over €7.5 billion ($8.4bn) to be allocated in June, and another payment expected sometime in the fall.

"This agreement is act of confidence in today's Greece," French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said. Without shedding further details into the deal, Sapin called the agreement comprehensive and noted that it covered short, medium and long-term measures related to the debt.

Meanwhile Slovakia's Finance Minister Peter Kažimír said that new tranche will provide Greece with enough "breathing space until October."

Let's try a thought experiment. Suppose you want to create your own army in say, Syria. You live in Pakistan. You are also a listed terrorist organization allegedly being hunted by multiple nations around the world including both the United States and the EU. How do you suppose you "move" to Syria and build your army or even something as grand as an "emirate?"

With what money? With what political support? How do you pass the various borders between Pakistan and Syria to even arrive in your new "emirate?"

Like a narrative of a Saturday morning cartoon, the New York Times article, "Al Qaeda Turns to Syria, With a Plan to Challenge ISIS," asks us to suspend belief, reporting:

Al Qaeda's top leadership in Pakistan, badly weakened after a decade of C.I.A. drone strikes, has decided that the terror group's future lies in Syria and has secretly dispatched more than a dozen of its most seasoned veterans there, according to senior American and European intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

Yesterday the New York Times ran a great piece of journalism on the political crisis in Israel. We have long complained on this site that the Times is hiding Israel's extremist intolerant face from its readers. Ronen Bergman's piece went against that pattern entirely. Here are some of the truths that Bergman dared to tell:

- Israeli military leaders "detest" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, because he sought "belligerent solutions" to problems and is motivated not by the country's interest but by "religion, ideology," and his own political ambitions.

—Netanyahu launched one war these leaders opposed — the 2014 slaughter in Gaza that killed 500 children — and had a "plan" to launch another one, an attack on Iran six years ago, that was "illegal," because he would have circumvented his own cabinet. "The military and intelligence leaders believed that the prime minister's plan to attack Iran's nuclear installations was politically motivated by electoral considerations and would embroil Israel in a superfluous war."

- The man Netanyahu has lately installed as Defense Minister — Avigdor Lieberman — is "an impulsive and reckless extremist... known for ruthlessly quashing people who hold opposing views." Lieberman has threatened to blow up the Aswan Dam.

- There could be a military coup in Israel, if Lieberman acts out. "[T]he possibility of a military coup has been raised — but only with a smile," Bergman reports from his conversations with military leaders. "It remains unlikely."

The Beltway military punditry floats one of its most inflammatory ideas yet, in calls for a preemptive strike against Moscow along with calls to bolster America's missile defense system.

On Friday, a DC-based think tank issued a report calling for additional funding to advance US missile defense technology to combat what they view as a rising nuclear missile threat from Russia.

Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin scoffed at Western assertions that Russia poses the preeminent threat to the US and NATO, labeling the idea of an attack against the military alliance "the type of thing that only crazy people think, and only when they are dreaming."

Faced with the need to keep the budget spigot open, a Cold War-inspired Beltway commentariat continues to ratchet up "protective measures" against Moscow's "aggression," by installing a missile defense system in Romania and constructing another similar missile defense system in Poland. NATO is now considering deploying permanent troops on the border between Poland and Russia, while undertaking a series of costly and polluting military exercises, steps from Russian lands.

The latest war-drum-beating report is provided by the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments, whose scholars Bryan Clark and Mark Gunzinger not only call for spending more money on lasers, railguns, and hypervelocity projectiles, but also posit fail-safe artificial intelligence systems capable of shooting down incoming missiles, again from Russia.

NATO is ready to intervene in the situation in Libya if the country's Government of National Accord (GNA) files a corresponding request, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Renzi told the Repubblica TV broadcaster that Italy had no intention to send its troops to Libya and that Rome intended to promote stability in this country through diplomatic means. According to Renzi, any decisions related to possible sending of the Italian forces abroad have to be approved by the country's parliament.

"And we stand ready to help Libya build its own defence institutions if so requested by the new Government of National Accord in Libya as part of broader UN-led efforts. And I spoke recently with Prime Minister Sarraj on how NATO can assist and he will soon send a team of experts to NATO to identify how we can help the new Libyan Government of National Accord," Stoltenberg said a joint press conference with the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The governments of Russia and China should speed up the process of linking the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Silk Road Economic Belt, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday.

"China and Russia should speed up linking the Silk Road Economic Belt and EAEU, in order to collect early harvest," Wang said on the sidelines of the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) member countries.

The foreign minister noted that Russia and China "maintain close strategic cooperation on international and regional issues, and have become important components of international stability. Developing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an important force of preserving peace," Wang said adding that Russia and China should continue close cooperation in this sphere.

The AKP will probably elect Binali Yıldırım as its President during its meeting on the 22 May 2016. As we announced two weeks ago, he should then immediately assume his functions as Prime Minister.

Presented by the Western Press as a personality devoted to President Erdoğan, he is in fact a key figure in the current Mafia system.

Binali Yıldırım is a maritime expert, ex-representative for the International Maritime Organisation. He was introduced to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when Erdoğan was elected as Mayor of Istanbul for the ultra-nationalist formation, Millî Görüş. Named as Director of the IDO (Istanbul's maritime bus service) in 1994, he set up a vast system of embezzlement of public funds for the benefit of the Mayor and himself.

Since then, the Yıldırım family has made a fortune. His son Erkan and his daughter Bahar Büşra created the company Derin Denizcilik Taşımacılık Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi (Deep Maritime Shipping Industry and Trade Company).

The family controls 17 companies, 28 ships and super yachts. The Kurdish deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu (CHP) proposed to the Grand Assembly that a committee of parliamentary enquiry should be created in order to determine the conditions of this sudden fortune, but the majority (AKP) rejected the request.

"We have been watching for nearly a month a steady buildup of American and NATO forces along Russia's borders -- on land, on sea and in the air. There has been nothing like this on Russia's borders, such an amassing of hostile military force, since the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941."

So concludes America's leading Russian expert, Professor Stephen Cohen (Princeton and New York University).

Professor Cohen asks if Washington is sleepwalking and needs to wake up or whether Washington has gone crazy and intends war.

Pepe Escobar advises Washington to "beware what you wish for: Russia is ready for war."

Escobar reports that recently the Rand Corporation, "essentially a CIA outpost," concluded that "Russia could over-run NATO in a mere 60 hours, if not less." On the level of nukes and missile systems, Russia is four generations ahead of the US military/security complex, which is mainly interested in inflating profits with cost overruns. US weapons systems are simply outclassed.

Nevertheless, the Russian high command is concerned with the Russian government's low-key response to Washington's aggression. The generals blame the "Atlanticists Integrationists" who infect Putin's government. This faction is believed to be organized around Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and believes Russia should make concessions to Washington in order to be accepted as part of the West. The incompetent Russian central bank and neoliberal economists are part of the faction whose goal is to be part of the West regardless of its impact on Russian independence from Washington's Empire.

Stephen Cohen and Alastair Crooke, a former British secret agent, almost alone in the West have noticed that the Russian military and the predominant part of the government that emphasizes national sovereignty are putting pressure on President Putin to eliminate those in the government who are willing to compromise Russia's independence in order to gain acceptance by Washington.

This has been my own opinion for some time. It is impossible to adequately stand up to an external threat when unreliable elements are part of the threatened government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow is ready for "coordination" with the so-called US-led coalition to liberate the city of Raqqah in Syria, which has been the de facto capital of the Takfiri Daesh terrorists.

"I can assure you that we are prepared for such sort of coordination" with the coalition and the Kurdish fighters for the liberation of Raqqah, Lavrov said on Tuesday.

The remark came as a Kurdish-Arab alliance announced that a major offensive is underway against Daesh in Raqqah Province.

"With the participation of all Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) units, we start this operation to liberate northern Raqqah" Province, the SDF wrote on Twitter, quoting Kurdish commander Rojda Felat.