(US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo receiving Uighur activists, Washington, March 27, 2019) The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s meeting with Uighur Muslim activists in Washington DC, on March 27 is by no means a routine diplomatic event. Clearly, there is nothing personal about this meeting. Although Pompeo is a passionate Bible-reading Christian from …
Russia throws down the gauntlet to US on Venezuela
(An airplane with the Russian flag was seen at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela, March 24, 2019.) The Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova acknowledged in Moscow on Tuesday that Russian “specialists” are indeed in Venezuela within the ambit of a 2001 military-technical cooperation agreement with Caracas. Zakharova underscored that Russia’s bilateral military cooperation …
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Trump’s Golan is a megalomaniac’s own goal
(Syria defending against Israeli missiles attacking Damascus, January 2019) The US President Donald Trump’s decree on March 26 granting official US recognition to Israel’s illegal annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights does not create any new fact on the ground. Trump’s motivations are fairly clear — boost Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s prospects in the April election …
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Trump unleashed. This is how it matters.
(Special counsel Robert Mueller walks with his wife, Ann, in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.) The big news from Washington is that special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into President Donald Trump’s ‘Russia collusion’ is unfounded. Attorney General William Barr’s communication to the US Congress says, “The special counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign …
Italy takes Belt and Road to the heart of Europe
(Italy receives Chinese president Xi Jinping in Rome with stately pageant.) ‘Xi in Rome: The escort fit for kings’ — that was the headline of one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspaper Corriere della Sera. The Chinese president Xi Jinping was greeted at the presidential Quirinale Palace by guards on horseback — an honour …
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Trump’s Golan move shows US contempt for international law and rules-based order
(Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967) The US President Donald Trump’s tweet on Thursday that the United States should back Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, didn’t quite come like a bolt from the blue. There has been talk about such a thing for sometime. Last December, the …
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With eye on US, Iran revs up ‘resistance front’
(Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force visiting the frontline somewhere in Iraq.) A new phase is beginning in Iran’s approach to the situation since last May when the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran had thus far prioritised the consolidation of Western opinion against President Trump’s decision with a …
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India shouldn’t undermine Afghan peace talks
(Handout picture of US officials at peace talks with Taliban, Doha, Qatar) The Press Trust of India has reported on the discussions regarding Afghanistan in Washington last week between the visiting Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and the US special representative Zalmay Khalilzad. The report carries New Delhi dateline and is attributed to ‘official sources’. According …
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The West broke Syria and should own it
Abu Omar, 70, smokes his pipe as he sits in his destroyed bedroom listening to music on his gramophone in the neighbourhood of al-Shaar in Aleppo, Syria. As Syria’s war enters its ninth year on March 15, many questions arise as to how it began and what it morphed into, but the most pressing one …
Spectre of Afghan quagmire haunts US
The Afghan national security advisor Hamdullah Mohib, while on a visit to Washington, tore into the US’ peace talks with Taliban in remarks to the American media on Thursday. Mohib alleged that US special representative Zalmay Khalilzad is keeping the Afghan govt in Kabul in the dark about the negotiations with the Taliban and that …