Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani (R) received External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Manama, Dec 24, 2020 The Chinese statement of December 2 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on the ‘Question of Palestine and the Situation in the Middle East’ should trigger introspection in New Delhi. Without doubt, this …
Continue reading “India’s Gulf strategy is chasing Chinese phantoms”
Three developments this week underscore that the growing multipolarity in the world order is inexorably loosening up established alliances that provided underpinnings previously for the United States to preserve its global hegemony through the past century. Given the magnitude of the domestic crisis in the US, it is not going to be able to reverse …
Continue reading “Medium and small states in the time of multipolarity”
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”
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) received US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Neom, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 22, 2020 On the arid landscape of the Arabian deserts, the outgoing US president Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner planted a sapling called the Abraham Accords last August. They forecast it to be the harbinger of …
Continue reading “Biden inherits Middle East’s grapes of wrath”
Iran’s nuclear water reactor in the city of Arak “Iran’s scientific and defense policies won’t change because of the assassination of one scientist or general,” the spokesman of the Iranian government Ali Rabiei wrote calmly and firmly in a statement Sunday posted on the official website. Iran “shouldn’t fall into the trap of linking the …
Continue reading “Israel gets boxed in as Iran issue surges”
Frau Europa: German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Brussels While addressing an online conference of legislators from across the European continent on November 30, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hit out at the concept of exceptionalism. Inevitably, Merkel’s remark has drawn much attention at a time when the Joe Biden’s presidency appears on the horizon. Merkel came …
Continue reading “When values and interests collide, where does Biden stand?”
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz (R) In his very first reaction on the killing of the Iranian nuclear scientist and Deputy Defense Minister Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last Friday, President Hassan Rouhani singled out Israel as the culprit. Not Saudi Arabia, not …
Continue reading “Netanyahu is the winner in Fakhrizadeh’s murder”
The well-known British historian and author of books on Soviet diplomatic and military history, Professor Geoffrey Roberts wrote a letter to the FT two days ago arguing for a reset of the US’ relationship with Russia by the Joe Biden presidency. It came as a breath of fresh air amidst the avalanche of apocalyptic predictions …
Continue reading “Biden faces daunting challenges on nuclear issues”
President Putin with then Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev during inauguration ceremony at Russian airbase at Kant, Oct. 23, 2003 It may seem unbelievable today when the Russian President Vladimir Putin is insistently holding back on congratulating Joe Biden on his magnificent victory even twenty-five days after the November 3 presidential election, that he was the …
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman (L), called Turkish President Recep Erdoğan (R) on Nov. 20, 2020 to discuss reset of relations. The controversial meeting between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (commonly known as MbS) in Neom, the mega-city under development on the Red Sea coast, on November 22 drew world …
Continue reading “Biden casts a spell on Arabia’s shifting sands”
