The US military carried out airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, targeting operational and weapons storage facilities of Iran-backed militia Unusual for a Sunday, John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, rushed to clarify that the US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in the weekend targeted facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups to launch attacks on American …
Continue reading “US airstrikes in Iraq, Syria: preemptive or provocative?”
European Union summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 25, 2021 A thoughtful, far-sighted proposal by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron calling for resumption of the European Union-Russia summit met sudden death at the EU’s summit in Brussels on Friday. A consensus was impossible to reach and the exchanges revealed a strong undercurrent …
When the anointed king receives his vassal formally at his durbar for the first time, it is a moment of truth conveying that the latter’s obeisance is noted, while the vassal hopes to claim legitimacy. A US president is due to receive Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in the White House on Friday after a gap …
Continue reading “Afghan Ghani makes farewell call on Biden”
Iran’s president-elect Ebrahim Raisi addresses his first press conference in Tehran, June 21, 2021 It is painful to read the US reports commenting on the result of Iran’s presidential election. The New York Times carried a blurb on Monday, “Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s ultraconservative president-elect, said that he would not meet with President Biden, and that …
The morning after a Russian-American summit is most critical to know whether the previous day’s bonhomie was real, surreal or unreal. Surveying the Geneva Summit (June 16) between presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, I cautiously assessed the next day, “Does Biden have the political capital to press ahead with a project to create “stability and …
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani (L) meets the media with President-elect Ebrahim Raisi (R) in Tehran, June 19, 2021 This may seem a paradox but the truth is that the United States does not realise that Iran’s presidential election result — the resounding victory of the conservative head of the judiciary Ebrahim Raisi — can be …
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and US President Joe Biden shake hands before their summit in Geneva, June 16, 2021 On the diplomatic stage, there is nothing to beat Russian-American summits in sheer theatrics. When the leaders of the two most powerful nuclear powers on earth sit face to face, anything can happen. What happened in …
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in Brussels on Monday reminds us once again of what a hoax the United States had perpetrated on the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 by assuring him that the western alliance would expand “not one inch eastward” once Moscow allowed German Unification and disbanded the Warsaw …
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The G7 leaders celebrated that the tumultuous Donald Trump presidency is over. French President Emmanuel Macron (L) sharing happy moment with President Biden, Cornwall, UK, June 12, 2021 (The first part of this essay titled G7 and China: Fault lines in the world order is here.) The European countries have their own plans, while welcoming the …
G7 leaders at their summit in Cornwall, UK, June 12-13, 2021 The G7 has come a long way since its inception in the mid-1970s at the initiative of then French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to discuss the world economy and consult on an international economic policy following the first …
Continue reading “G7 and China: Fault lines in the world order”
