A Chinese-mediated Saudi-Iranian reconciliation potentially casts a spotlight on fundamentally flawed security policies of regional powers, including not only the kingdom and Iran but also the United Arab Emirates. While much of the discussion in recent years has focused on Iran’s strategy of creating a defense line far beyond its borders by nurturing and/or...
The US, its vassals across the Golden Billion, and their proxies in Kiev have all insisted that Russia’s special operation is “illegitimate”, yet the sincerity of that stance is now thrown into doubt after the Biden Administration quietly resumed the deportation of mobilization-fleeing Russian men. The Guardian was the first to break this story, citing immig...
Reform of Islamic jurisprudence was the elephant in the room when two prominent Saudi clerics recently clashed publicly on whether apostasy was punishable with death under Islamic law. The debate’s timing on a Saudi state-controlled, artsy entertainment channel, Rotana Khalijiya, suggested as much. The debate aired days before the kingdom’s Ministry of Islam...
Central Asian countries’ determination to shape their own destiny and lay the ground for a prospering economic bond with the Middle East and neighbouring South Asian nations will depend on removing two bottlenecks that presently hold them back. To begin with, the unplanned and abrupt withdrawal of the American forces from Afghanistan and its transfer to the ...
China’s push to have closer relations with the Central Asian countries made headway following the collapse of the Soviet Union, an adversary to China at the time. In setting up the Shanghai Five, which evolved into the SCO, China’s diplomacy in Central Asia is motivated by its security threats and economic interests. Till Chinese President Xi Jinping unveile...
Economic integration among the Asian countries through physical connectivity and trade is of prime necessity in coming days to ensure the future physical and economic security of this vast and populous continent. Since the collapse of colonial empires in the mid-twentieth century, the economic inclusion process in the Asian continent proceeded only haltingly...
It was a momentous event, the importance of which is not perceived outside the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran reconciled... in China. Three signatures at the bottom of a document reshuffle all the cards in this region. Since the 19th century, the Arab world was first dominated by the United Kingdom and France on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, then by ...
Mohammed Bin Salman did a lot early on that riled many folks from both the alternative and mainstream media, but as can be seen from his country’s latest rapprochement with Iran, he was always driven by the desire to put his country’s interests first in the way that he felt was the most effective. Saudi Crown Prince and first-ever Prime Minister Mohammed Bi...
In the first days of March, India was the center of international politics. The formal occasion for the appearance on its territory of the forty foreign ministers was one of the calendar events of the Forum G20, that is the twenty leading economies in the world which together account for 85% of world GDP. Another 20 ministers arrived in New Delhi at the invi...
When the scenario is all mapped out, with different and various levels of conflict between the West and Russia, it is easy to conclude that lots of preparation and game theory has gone into the proffered reports by various think tanks, RAND, Atlantic Council, NATO, EU, etc. But include that with the level of diligence, it is highly ironic to see them getting...
It is no coincidence that as Washington wages proxy war against Russia in Ukraine that familiar trouble spots elsewhere along Russia’s periphery have ignited again. In the Caucasus region nation of Georgia, protests have begun, targeting the current government and attempting to obstruct a transparency bill [since withdrawn-ed] aimed at exposing and managing ...
It is “Globalization 2.0.” Indeed, this is how US officials led by Katharine Tai, the US Trade Representative, define the ‘new’ US Economic and Trade policy. “Globalization 1.0” is said to have its limitations and “Globalization 2.0” will overcome these limitations for Washington. In a testimony to the US Senate in March 2022, Tai described “Globalization 2....
Gulf autocrats are trying to squash calls for reform of Islamic law with three Bahraini men on trial. Redha Rajab, his son Mohamed Rajab, and researcher Jalal al-Qassab are members of the Al-Tajdeed Society, which encourages discussion and questioning of Islamic law. They’re accused of violating articles 309 and 310 of the Bahraini penal code, says Bahrain’s...
February ended as a month of discontent for the public after the government raised power tariffs for a second time on February 15. It was said to be the last of 15 conditions to be met for the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of $2.9 billion. But the uncertainties over the EFF are not over as the IMF is yet to receive assuranc...
The first anniversary of the East-West military confrontation in Ukraine was an opportunity for the West to convince its people that they were “on the right side of history” and that their victory was “inevitable.” None of this is surprising. It is normal for governments to communicate about their activities. Except that here the information is lies by...
A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you’re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by selected stops and enlightening conversations, crystallizing disparate vectors one year after the start of the accelerated phase of the proxy war between US / NATO and Russia. That’s how Moscow welcomes you: the undisput...
Volodomyr Zelensky has a lot of powerful backers around the world, and from afar, the Ukrainian president seems politically invincible. He’s got the Uniparty in Washington, D.C. on his side, coupled with the international globalists in the robust World Economic Forum-attached network, along with the public-private asset management behemoth financiers in Blac...
The People’s Republic of Bangladesh seeks to maintain a special status in the global geopolitical arena by refusing to join any defense alliances and attempting to remain neutral. This trend can be explained by the fact that China and India account for approximately 35% of all Bangladeshi imports, primarily machinery and energy resources, while the West acco...
If played well, security is the United States trump card in stabilizing relations with its Gulf partners and competing with China for regional influence. In a just-released report, Middle East scholar and former Pentagon official Bilal Y. Saab argued that security entails far more than arms sales and defining the parameters of US security guarantees. Perhap...
For the last few days, a discussion is going on in the media and social media that the debt on the government has increased much more than before. Congress says that when they left office in 2014, the country had a debt of only Rs 56.7 lakh crore, which has increased to Rs 152.6 lakh crore in 2022-23, that is, by about Rs 96 lakh crore. Apparently, this figu...