Pakistan is traversing minefields as it concludes agreements on investment, balance of payments support and delayed payment oil deliveries with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth USD$13 billion that are likely to fawn growing distrust in its relations with neighbouring Iran. Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan expects to next month sign a memorandum…
As was to be expected, the announcement that the US was withdrawing troops from Syria has served to provoke numerous reactions in the Middle East and beyond. Following the removal of Mattis, Pompey and Bolton embarked on a whirlwind Middle Eastern tour of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman,…
The narrative has suddenly sprung up that Russia is supposedly planning to meddle in “Israel’s” upcoming elections to support the incumbent, but this is nothing more than an attempt by the most pro-American factions of “Israeli” society and its “deep state” to undermine Netanyahu by replicating the Democrats’ “Russiagate” conspiracy against Trump. The latest news…
A heavy soup made of pulled noodles, meat, and vegetables symbolizes Central Asia’s close cultural and/or ethnic ties with China’s repressed Turkic and Hui Muslims. It also explains growing Central Asian unease with China’s re-education campaign in its north-western province of Xinjiang and its signature infrastructure and energy driven-Belt and Road initiative. Named Ashlan Fu…
2018 has been another rough year for Libya, which has seen no peace since its government was destroyed by NATO bombardment in 2011. June saw battles for control of the country’s “oil crescent” between Tobruk and Sidr, as militia leader Ibrahim Jadhran briefly seized the area, wiping out almost all of Libya’s oil output before…
There could be no more consequential decision than launching atomic weapons and possibly triggering a nuclear holocaust. President John F. Kennedy faced just such a moment during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and, after envisioning the catastrophic outcome of a U.S.-Soviet nuclear exchange, he came to the conclusion that the atomic powers should impose…
