US soldiers like these deployed to Afghanistan have been in the landlocked mountainous country since late 2001 (AFP Photo) There could be several ways of interpreting the US State Department’s decision on Tuesday to designate the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, which imposes economic sanctions on the group and anyone affiliated …
Russia tamps down US-Iran tensions
(Donald Trump signed an executive order for new sanctions against Iran on June 24, 2019) The US President Donald Trump is learning that Persian is a tricky language and does not easily yield its hidden charms to westerners. The western media attributed to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani a remark during his televised speech on June …
Will India and Turkey jointly broker an easing of US-Iran tensions?
How amazing that the defeat of the Turkish ruling party AKP in the election for Istanbul mayor on Sunday turns out to be world class headline in the western media! At the most obvious level, it only highlights the deep antipathy toward Turkish President Recep Erdogan in the West and the US’ regional allies in …
Continue reading “Will India and Turkey jointly broker an easing of US-Iran tensions?”
US credibility dented in Iran standoff
(File photo of US Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk identified by the US as the drone shot down by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, June 20) The US President Donald Trump’s reported decision abruptly to call off military strike against Iran which he’d previously ordered, highlights the growing complexity of the US-Iranian entanglement. Indeed, it …
Iran can be Trump’s nemesis
(Smoke billows from the Front Altair oil tanker, Gulf of Oman, June 13, 2019) What a coincidence that a leaked document from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) just exposed that the chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April, 2018 was most likely staged. In security parlance, it was a false …
Abe’s mediatory mission to Tehran hangs in the balance
(Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses an Eid gathering of academics, scholars, intellectuals and elites, Tehran, May 29, 2019) With two days to go for the arrival of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tehran on a peace mission to promote US-Iran talks, a great deal of shadow boxing has been going on. Typically, …
Continue reading “Abe’s mediatory mission to Tehran hangs in the balance”
Trump makes big-time overture to Iran
(US President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe chat during dinner in Tokyo, Sunday, May 26, 2019) The extraordinary remarks on Iran made by the US President Donald Trump at his joint press conference with his host Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on May 27 merit careful analysis. There are several elements in it …
India’s betrayal of Iran is only the beginning
The sudden visit to New Delhi by the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif for a meeting on May 14 with the outgoing External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the dying days of the Modi government underscores dramatically how much Tehran has been traumatised by the Indian decision under American pressure to summarily stop all …
Continue reading “India’s betrayal of Iran is only the beginning”
Who’s afraid of Afghan peace talks – Kabul and Delhi?
(A transfer case containing the remains of Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman at Dover Air Force Base, Del. who was among 3 American soldiers killed near Bagram base, Afghanistan on April 8, 2019) Henry Kissinger wouldn’t have approved the way Zalmay Khalilzad, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, handles the Afghan peace talks. Even if Tweeter …
Continue reading “Who’s afraid of Afghan peace talks – Kabul and Delhi?”
Don’t expect US-Iran war before 2021
(Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders report directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R)) There is no reason to disbelieve the boast by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming credit personally for US President Donald Trump’s decision to designate Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a “foreign terrorist organisation” under American law. It …