US Vice-President Kamala Harris met UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi, May 16, 2022 The extraordinary sight of the Biden administration’s entire foreign and security policy establishment representing Washington on the occasion of the passing away of the emir of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa …
Ukraine makes strange bedfellows
The world community is aghast over the acute tensions between the United States and its NATO allies on one side and Russia on the other, which is poised critically on the brink of a military confrontation, the like of which the world didn’t see in the entire Cold War era. The shocking part is that …
As UAE embraces Iran, fizz goes pop for Abraham Accords
Iran’s Dy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani (C) with diplomatic adviser to UAE President Anwar Gargash (L) and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalifa Almara, Abu Dhabi, Nov. 16, 2021 The terrible secret about Faustian deals is that they need a Mephistopheles to nurture them. That said, Goethe’s Mephisto is very different from the …
Continue reading “As UAE embraces Iran, fizz goes pop for Abraham Accords”
Blinken comes riding the Pegasus
Pegasus: the spyware technology that threatens democracy Pegasus, the winged divine horse from Greek mythology, symbolises a range of things. The mythological salad can include many symbolic narratives — ranging from soul’s immortality to poetic inspiration — even the Marxist eschatological myth of the withering away of the state. The Pegasus Project is a raging …
To Indians, Palestine’s Hamas remains a riddle
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) met Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Tehran, (File photo) One major outcome of the current conflict in Gaza, West Bank and Jerusalem will be the emergence of Hamas as the charioteer of the Palestinian resistance movement against Israel. The Hamas’ ascendence poses a predicament for a number of countries …
Continue reading “To Indians, Palestine’s Hamas remains a riddle”
Gulf security paradigm in historic shift
Foreign Ministers of Cyprus, Israel and Greece and the diplomatic adviser of UAE’s President met in Paphos, Cyprus April 16, 2021 The geopolitical alignments of the Gulf region are rapidly transforming both in bilateral and multilateral formats. Starting with the rapprochement between Qatar and Saudi Arabia in January, the common thread here is that the …
Coup attempt in Jordan leaves a trail
“What happens in the Middle East has a way of making itself felt everywhere around the world,” Jordan’s King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein while addressing the European Parliament, Strasbourg, 15th January 2021 A coup attempt is an orphan unless it succeeds. Therefore, all we can say is that a coup was in the making in …
Blinken blinks on human rights
Protesters wearing helmets, gloves stand behind makeshift shields during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, March 1, 2021 On March 3, the US State Department has put on its website a hilarious statement titled The United States Opposes the ICC Investigation into the Palestinian Investigation. In a nutshell, the statement exposes that the Joe Biden Administration …
Qatar on mission to break US-Iran stalemate
Iran foreign minister Javad Zarif (L) and Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani (R), Tehran. Feb. 15, 2021 With five days to go, Iran nuclear issue is tiptoeing toward a deadline on February 21 when Tehran is obliged by its domestic law to stop allowing inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency unless there …
Continue reading “Qatar on mission to break US-Iran stalemate”
Saudi overtures to Qatar and Turkey bring results
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (R) welcomes Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Ankara, Turkey, Nov. 26, 2020 A rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is on cards. An announcement can be expected in a matter of days. Kuwait, which had been mediating between Riyadh and Doha hinted on November 27 that a breakthrough …
Continue reading “Saudi overtures to Qatar and Turkey bring results”