Vladimir Putin will have paid very close attention to the location of the Syrian artillery battery where four Russian soldiers lost their lives at the weekend. The desert around Deir ez-Zour remains a dangerous place – politically as well as physically – in which the Americans and Russians play an extremely risky game of war….
The annual meeting of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum – dubbed as “Russia’s Davos” – on May 25, which traditionally promotes foreign investment in the Russian economy, ended this time around as a major political event signaling a renewed bid by President Vladimir Putin for détente with the West. In wide-ranging remarks at the forum, Putin…
In December 2004, King Abdullah of Jordan inaugurated the modern sectarian era by warning the US and Arab allies of a “Shia crescent“, a relentless Iranian crusade to subvert and dominate the Middle East. That prophecy was fulfilled, with the resultant Sunni-Arab coalition helping fuel a new wave of tensions and conflict with Iran. Yet…
The fast-moving and full-spectrum Russian-Saudi rapprochement has now been revealed to have taken on peacemaking dimensions in Syria. The Saudi Ambassador to Russia gave an exclusive interview to Sputnik where he revealed that the two Great Powers are working more closely together in Syria than had previously been acknowledged. Up until this point, it was…
Russia wants all non-Syrian forces withdrawn from southern areas bordering Israel. More on this below. The right to self-defense is inviolable under international law, including under Article 51 of the UN Charter. It prohibits one nation from attacking another except in self-defense, stating: “Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual…
The fact a couple Russian military advisors together with dozens of Syrian soldiers have recently perished in the Deir ez-Zor area indicates the United States together with its allies carries on with preparations to cast a decisive blow in southwest Syria, aimed at cutting off Iranian forces from their allies. Damascus has this far been…
