In business transactions and international diplomacy alike, there could be constant variables and dependent variables. Constant variable is where the value cannot be changed once it has been assigned a value. But it becomes a dependent variable if it is susceptible or open to the effect of an associated factor or phenomenon. Then, there is …
Continue reading “US return to JCPOA can end impasse over Iran”
Secretary of State John Kerry in a tightly scripted exchange with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif specifically timed to the release of several American prisoners held in Iran, Vienna, Jan. 16, 2016 At a time when the Trump administration has no problem negotiating with the secretary of the Russian national security council Nikolai Patrushev, who is …
The British tanker seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Strait of Hormuz, Jul 20, 2019 The seizure of a British oil tanker by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on July 20 in the Strait of Hormuz has all the hallmarks of a retaliatory act in the downstream of the seizure of an Iranian …
Continue reading “Iran seizes UK tanker in counter-escalation”
When Michael Rubin at the American Enterprise Institute argued in an article in the National Interest last week that the ‘maximum pressure’ policy of the Trump administration against Iran must be maintained despite the dangerous brinkmanship at the Strait of Hormuz last week, we got an authentic version of Israel’s stance on the current US-Iran …
Continue reading “Israel is leading Trump up the garden path”
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”
(Oil facility on Iran’s Kharg Island. US cancels waivers on Iran oil imports.) China’s stance vis-a-vis the US sanctions against Iran’s oil exports is evolving. These are early days. Quite obviously, the Chinese assessment that Iran is not going to wilt under US pressure gives a realistic picture. But it means that there is a long …
Continue reading “US ends waiver on India’s Iran oil imports. What next?”
(Minister of Shipping & Transport Nitin Gadkari receiving Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, New Delhi, January 8, 2019) If the ‘Newton Effect’ in physics has an equivalent in international diplomacy, we can describe what is happening to India-Iran relations as the ‘Gadkari Effect’. Like in the case of the 18th century English scientist Isaac …
Continue reading “Gadkari sets benchmark for Modi-era diplomacy”
(Iran’s Chabahar Port) India has done well to put in place the nuts and bolts of a payment mechanism for its trade and investment transactions with Iran against the backdrop of the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) in May last year followed by the imposition …
Continue reading “India sequesters Iran ties from US predatory strike”
