The recent visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to Belarus and Russia should not be read as a routine round of diplomatic engagements or as a symbolic reaffirmation of existing alliances. It reflects a more deliberate recalibration of Iran’s foreign policy within an evolving Eurasian environment shaped by sanctions […]
Author: PEIMAN SALEHI
The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy: Quiet De-Prioritisation Of Russia And A Warning Bell For Europe
When Washington released the 2025 National Security Strategy, most commentary immediately focused on its language about “strategic competition” and the familiar list of adversaries. Yet if we read the document not as a rhetorical exercise but as a political signal, a different picture emerges. After four years of war in […]
Aref’s Moscow Visit Shows How Iran Is Stress-Testing Asia’s Economic Architecture
When Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Reza Aref, travelled to Moscow for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) prime ministers’ meeting, it came at a moment of renewed pressure on Tehran. The snapback mechanism has been reactivated, Western sanctions discussions are re-intensifying, and the regional environment remains unsettled after the recent twelve-day […]
A Trusteeship In Disguise: Why Moscow And Beijing Refused To Legitimize America’s Gaza Project
The recent adoption of the United States–drafted Gaza resolution in the UN Security Council is far more than another procedural episode in the management of a protracted conflict. It marks a decisive moment in the geopolitical contest over the future architecture of the Middle East and the evolving international order. […]
Trump in Kuala Lumpur: ASEAN, Multipolarity, And The Repositioning Of U.S. Power
Donald Trump’s presence at the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia may seem at first glance like a conventional diplomatic event. In reality, it is a revealing episode in the ongoing re-engineering of American strategy amid the emergence of a multipolar world. The trip reflects Washington’s gradual recognition that direct dominance in […]
Budapest’s Silence And The Unmaking Of American Centrality
Empires rarely fall in noise; they dissolve in silence. The sudden quiet around Budapest, after the cancellation of a long-anticipated summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, may tell us more about the end of an era than any official communiqué. What was meant to be another act in Washington’s […]
Iran’s Strategic Options After The Snapback Mechanism: Escalation, Diplomacy, Or A Hybrid Path?
The reactivation of the UN snapback mechanism has placed Iran under renewed pressure at a moment of growing global instability. Designed as a safeguard in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the snapback provision restores international sanctions if a party is deemed in violation. For policymakers in Washington, […]
Why Iran Stayed Away From The Sharm el-Sheikh Summit: A Calculated Diplomatic Move
Iran’s absence from the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit is often dismissed as recalcitrance or obstructionism. But viewed through the prism of recent events, it becomes clear that Tehran chose nonparticipation as a strategic judgment on legitimacy, risk, and leverage. In a moment when U.S. and European powers are resurrecting the […]
After The Storm: Gaza, Power, And The Shifting Meaning Of Resistance
Since the eruption of the Al-Aqsa Storm operation on October 7, 2023, the Gaza conflict has reshaped the political and moral landscape of the Middle East. Two years on, the battle has evolved beyond military confrontation it has become a war over legitimacy, narrative, and the endurance of an idea: […]
Snapback At The Crossroads: Why The Global Order Hinges On Iran, China, And Russia’s Defiance
On September 26, China and Russia formally proposed a six-month delay in the activation of the UN’s “snapback” mechanism against Iran. At first glance, this might appear to be a procedural maneuver another bargaining chip in the endless cycle of nuclear disputes and sanctions diplomacy. Yet the timing, substance, and […]






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