Iranian Dilemma

Iran-Israel-complex-relations

Israel’s Complex Relations With Iran

While the mullahs’ rhetoric is clearly anti-Israeli, relations between the two countries are far more complex than one might think. There are in fact two opposing groups in Iran, one intent on doing business by all means with the rest of the world, while the other aims to liberate peoples […]

Assad met Abdollahian

Syria’s Power Dynamic Is Shifting

The process toward a Turkish-Syrian rapprochement may lose momentum as a top aide to Turkish President Recep Erdogan threatened to derail it. On Saturday, Ibrahim Kalin, presidential advisor on foreign policy, stated during a media briefing in Ankara that the Russian push for peace did not mean that Ankara was […]

Gulf war

A Fatal Friendship? (II)

Part I After the end of the war with Iran in the summer of 1989, the Iraqi leadership was faced with two major problems: economic and domestic, on the solution of which the survival of the Baathist regime depended. In fact, the eight-year war with Iran had bankrupted the country. […]

Iraqi premier

The Optimism Of Iraq’s New Government

On December 20, the Second Baghdad Conference was held in Amman, Jordan, attended by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, foreign ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Turkey, Bahrain and Oman. As for other regions, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Union High Representative for Foreign […]

Xi Jinping Mohammed bin Salman

New Era Of China-Saudi Ties Riles Iran

The pomp and ceremony of the recent visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Saudi Arabia has drawn comparison with the banality and frigid atmosphere surrounding the US President Joe Biden’s trip to the kingdom in July. However, the main difference is that the Saudis organised three separate regional summits […]

Borrell in Iran

EU Cracks The Whip (Gently) On Iran

The European Union has returned to the ritual of sanctioning Iran to leverage its foreign and security policies. The highlight of the EU Foreign Affairs Council ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday was the imposition of sanctions against Iran over a range of issues. The issues were “the unacceptable repression […]

Putin with Ebrahim Raisi

US Internationalises Iran’s Unrest

The ongoing unrest in Iran since mid-September following the death of a Kurdish woman in police custody shows no signs of abating as of now. The unrest has drawn support from all social strata and assumed anti-government overtones. The efficacy of suppressing the unrest is doubtful. Iran is entering a […]

Shamkhani Patrushev

Russia Strategises With Iran For The Long Haul In Ukraine

Ignoring the hype in the US media about White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Kissingerian diplomacy over Ukraine, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, former KGB counterintelligence officer and longstanding associate of President Putin, travelled to Tehran last Wednesday in the equivalent of a knockout punch in […]

kamikaze-drones

The West Bullies Iran, Again

The manner in which Tehran handled its drone deal with Russia has been somewhat clumsy. The fact that the first ‘leak’ on this topic originated from none other than President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan should have alerted Tehran that something sinister was afoot. Instead, for whatever reasons, Tehran […]