EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell (L) with Iran’s Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, Tehran, July 27, 2022. (File photo) 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 …
Unrest in Mongolia: Who Stands to Gain?
Week-long anti-government protests in Ulaanbaatar show no signs of abating, Mongolia, December 9, 2022 The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a TV interview in Moscow on Sunday, when asked about where the relationship between Russia and the West is moving, “Well, we are not moving. We have already arrived at a station named ‘Confrontation’, …
Demons creep up from Europe’s attic
‘Reichsbürger’ at a rally in Berlin: Neo-Nazi, or just a crackpot? The visit of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to New Delhi had an anti-climatic ending. Baerbock waxed eloquently about Germany as a paragon of democratic values and claimed affinity with India. She hoped to persuade Modi government to disengage from strategic partnership with “authoritarian” …
Italy distances from ‘cancellation’ of Russia
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni arrives to attend the gala premiere in the country’s most famous opera house, Teatro alla Scala, which opened its new season with the Russian opera “Boris Godunov,” Milan, Italy, December 7, 2022 Noam Chomsky once wrote that the astronomical cost of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, estimated into trillions …
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US internationalises Iran’s unrest
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (C) received Russian President Vladimir Putin (L). Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is on the right, Tehran, July 19, 2022 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 …
Macron’s US visit tells Europe’s alienation
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and US President Joe Biden met in the White House, Washington, DC, Dec. 1, 2022 The state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to the United States stands out as a signpost of the alignments taking place against the backdrop of the historic churning in the world order. The two …
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Reflections on Events in Afghanistan — 41
At least 100 children were killed in a terrorist attack at a school in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 30, 2022 41. US brings culture wars to Afghanistan The time has come to pick up threads from my blog of January 27 titled The West co-opts the Taliban. Indeed, the wheel has come full circle since the …
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Conflict in Ukraine is doomed to escalate
Defining moment in the Battle of Donbass, as the 4-month long defiant Ukrainian resistance to the Russian offensive is ending The meet-up location of NATO foreign ministers on November 29-30— Bucharest — was where ten years ago, former US President George W. Bush persuaded America’s transatlantic partners that Ukraine and Georgia should one day join …
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What to expect in Russia’s winter offensive in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with mothers of military personnel participating in the special military operation in Ukraine, Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region, November 25, 2022 Wading through the 18,000-word transcript of an hours-long meeting that President Vladimir Putin took with the “soldiers’ mothers” last Friday in Moscow, one gets the impression that the fighting in Ukraine …
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Putin invokes Castro’s legacy
Statue of Fidel Castro, first of its kind anywhere in the world, was unveiled by President Vladimir Putin, Moscow, Nov. 22, 2022 A three-meter-tall bronze statue of Fidel Castro was unveiled on Tuesday in the Fidel Castro Square in Moscow’s Sokol District by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in memory of the …