In a devastating condemnation of Islamabad that has no precedent, the Military Aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi has squarely blamed Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for supporting the terrorist groups acting against Iran. This followed a fedayeen attack on a bus carrying security personnel of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) …
Continue reading “Iran accuses Pak ISI of cross-border terrorism”
The fedayeen attack in Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir, on Thursday killing 44 paramilitary personnel and injuring scores of others should be properly understood. At the most obvious level, the country is paying a very heavy price for the Modi government’s Kashmir policies — riveted on relentless state suppression of an alienated people — and its …
Continue reading “Pulwama shows limits to muscular policies”
The Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta carried a thoughtful commentary on Tuesday titled Russia becomes China’s raw material storeroom. The argument runs like this: There has been a phenomenal shift in the structure of Sino-Russian trade through the past two decades. The share of Russian supplies of machinery and equipment to China in the export basket …
The Afghan Mujahideen leader and former president Professor Sibghatullah Mujaddidi died in Kabul on Monday at the age of 93. It marks the departure of one of the most moderate figures in the ‘Islamist’ camp. Mujaddidi was a Naqshbandi Sufi and more an Islamic scholar than an insurgent leader. Probably, the soft-spoken Mujahid with a …
Continue reading “Mujaddidi pioneered India’s Mujahideen ties”
(Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Argentina, November 29, 2018) The state visit on February 19-20 by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an unusual event insofar as it was not scheduled through the diplomatic channel. …
(Congress President Rahul Gandhi (R) and CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury) The prospect of an electoral adjustment between the Congress Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal for the 2019 poll does not come as surprise but it has a refreshing look of realism and pragmatism, nonetheless. The top leaderships of …
(Worshippers at the famous Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang) Turkey has broken its silence on the controversial topic of the human rights situation in Xinjiang, China, with the Foreign Ministry issuing an exceptionally strongly worded statement on February 9. The statement alleges that the violation of the fundamental human rights of “Uighur Turks and …
(Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif personally briefs Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Grand Ayatollah Bashir Hussain Najafi at his home in Najaf, regarding the Iran nuclear deal, before a visit to the Imam Ali shrine in the city, 27 July 2015.) The US President Donald Trump has been struggling to terminate America’s ‘endless wars’, but without much …
Continue reading “Iraq seeks US presence but rejects occupation”
The two-day conference of mainstream Afghan politicians and Taliban representatives in Moscow on February 5-6 has become a landmark event in the peace process. Principally, it signifies the commencement of the ‘intra-Afghan dialogue,’ a process that was struggling to be born. Continue reading
The two-day conference of mainstream Afghan politicians and Taliban representatives in Moscow on February 5-6 becomes a landmark event in the peace process. Principally, it signifies the commencement of the ‘intra-Afghan dialogue’, a process that was struggling to be born. This process can be expected to galvanise the Afghan peace talks. Some of the most …
