Debris at the headquarters of Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia after the US airstrike, Qaim, Iraq, December 30, 2019 The “precision defensive strikes” by the United States at five targets of Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia in Iraq and Syria on Sunday night can be seen as a new vector of Washington’s “maximum pressure” approach to Tehran. …
Continue reading “US reminds Iran of red line on Iraqi turf”
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan received Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Islamabad on Dec.26, 2019. The one-day visit to Islamabad on December 26 by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah aimed at a reset of the Saudi-Pakistani relationship. What emerges is that Saudis are going the extra league …
Continue reading “Saudi placates Pakistan. What about India?”
Libyan National Army forces commanded by Khalifa Haftar prepare to advance to Tripoli, November 2019, File photo. Libya’s call seeking military assistance from Turkey and the latter’s prompt announcement on Thursday of its readiness to meet the request as early as next month is no doubt a carefully choreographed sequence of events. Tripoli and Ankara …
Continue reading “Eastern Mediterranean is big enough for Turkey, Russia”
A soldier deployed to NATO base in Kabul posing for a picture with a Santa in the base cafeteria, December 24 2019 The Modi government’s approach to the transition in Afghanistan bears an uncanny resemblance to the situation thirty years ago, in end-1989. A great power that intervened in Afghanistan was retreating after a bloody …
PM Narendra Modi waits for a meeting with Portuguese PM Antonio Costa, New Delhi, December 19, 2019. Photo: AP This has been an extraordinary period in India’s equations with the international community. The mass agitation against the Modi-Amit Shah plan of action to impose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and its follow-up, the National Register …
Continue reading “Why Hindutva is a pariah in world opinion”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (2nd R, Rear), U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper (1st R, Rear), Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (2nd L, Rear), Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh (1st L, Rear) attended a press conference following their second “2+2 Ministerial Dialogue”, Washington D.C., December 18, 2019. To what extent External Affairs …
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) with newly-elected Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (L), New Delhi, 29 Nov. 2019 Since the setback in Nepal three years ago when the Indian diktat on the contents of a new constitution for that country was brusquely dismissed by that country’s communist leadership, Modi government faces a similar rebuff from …
Continue reading “Rajapaksa’s ‘nyet’ on Mattala is a bitter pill to swallow”
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (L) and Turkish President Recep Erdogan (R), Ankara, Oct. 2019. File photo. The Indian establishment, including the political leadership, is running into a strange predicament. Never before has India’s image looked so visibly sullied in comparison with Pakistan’s as much as in the most recent years under the present government. …
Continue reading “Pakistan at crossroads. Turkish footfalls beckon.”
Rohingya refugees in prayer at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 2019 The KL Summit 2019 hosted by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on December 18-21 was originally conceived as a landmark event in the politics of the Muslim world. It still is, albeit on a wet wicket struggling …
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia reads the riot act to Imran Khan”
The US-China trade deal is harbinger of even harder talks, but apparent pragmatism on both sides is a positive sign. The agreement on the terms of the first phase of a trade deal between the US and China broadly envisages that Washington would reduce some tariffs on Chinese goods while Beijing would boost purchases of American farm, energy and manufactured …
