Iran has opted not to wait for further unfriendly steps by Washington in response to its nuclear deal and the Iranian presence in Syria, fully comprehending that the USA is preparing for military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran and are simply buying time by creating an international coalition to initiate this action and…
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent speech on Iran, although titled “After the Deal: A New Iran Strategy”, was in fact not new at all. It was something else– a tedious recitation of the same arguments, with the same fallacies and red herrings, that have become numbingly familiar in attacks on the deal in question:…
Russia and Saudi Arabia are in deep debate on whether to raise OPEC and non-OPEC oil production by 1 million barrels a day to offset the drastic plunge in Venezuela’s production plus possible shortfalls when new US sanctions on Iran kick in in November. The problem is that even a production raise would not be…
The Middle East is a region where many different interests meet and interact. Moving one piece may provoke a reaction at the other end of the chess-board. The tentatives by Donald Trump to break with the strategy of Admiral Cebrowski [1] and pacify a particularly wounded zone are, for the moment, provoking contradictory consequences which are…
The annulment of the Iran nuclear deal framework could not be fended off by the visits or entreaties of Merkel, Macron or May. Donald Trump has refused to renew the agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), removing the United States from the deal. In reality, it changes little for Washington,…
The Ayatollah’s listing of five counter-demands to the Europeans following Pompeo’s 12-point ultimatum to Iran plays right into Trump’s hands by making it seem like Tehran is “blackmailing” the US’ allies because it’s so desperate for Western investment, whereas the country should actually do away with those discredited “partners” and more openly embrace China, Pakistan,…
