Germany draws another line in the sand for the US

Russia’s pipe-layer crane ship Fortuna, capable of laying about 1km of undersea pipe a day (File photo) Exactly a week after the announcement on December 30 regarding European Union’s long-sought comprehensive investment agreement with China, the Danish Energy Agency received an innocuous revised schedule from Nord Stream 2 AG for the construction of the gas pipeline …

US may annoy adversaries but means no harm

The US Congress in night session after rioters were evicted and Capitol building was sanitised, Washington, DC, January 6, 2021 Atonement becomes an inevitable process as the decline of a superpower begins accelerating. But imperial powers find it genuinely difficult to learn to become a ‘normal’ country. That dichotomy could cause traumatic events. The sack …

Saudi embrace of Qatar falls short of Gulf unity

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) welcomes Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani upon arrival to attend Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Al-Ula, Jan. 5, 2021. The West Asian region is such a fragmented part of the world that any semblance of reconciliation on any of the criss-crossing fault lines becomes a …

Biden needs Russia and China’s help to cut Trump’s Gordian knot on Iran

South Korean-flagged tanker Hankuk Chemi carrying 7200 tonnes of ethanol escorted by Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats off Oman for polluting the Gulf with chemicals, January 4, 2021   In international diplomacy, while creating narratives, there is a criticality about the timeline over normative values. Iran’s announcement on December 4 that it has begun to enrich uranium …