Afghan President Ashraf Ghani appointed his political rival Mohammad Haneef Atmar, as acting foreign minister, Kabul, April 4, 2020 The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in the US State Department, Alice Wells dropped a bombshell early morning today on the Afghan government and the country’s political elites …
Continue reading “Don’t threaten Afghans. It will be counterproductive.”
The past week witnessed a sudden spurt of tensions in the US-Iran standoff. There was intense speculation that to divert public attention in America from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump might order a military attack on Iran. Trump himself fuelled the speculation with the sudden outburst in a tweet on April 1: …
Continue reading “Trump’s Iran sanctions policy on the turn”
Indians observe social distancing before a pharmacy A national strategy to tackle the coronavirus pandemic has appeared, finally. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with state chief ministers on Thursday becomes the first milestone in a challenging journey ahead. PM outlined an exit strategy to get out of the “total lockdown”. It is a strategy …
Oil price war in the time of Covid-19 On Monday, the US President Donald Trump literally bit the bullet by telephoning Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the state of the energy markets, which are at a crisis point not seen in history. As of last weekend, global oil prices collapsed by over 50 percent …
Continue reading “Trump tiptoeing toward energy market management”
All through the recent weeks since US President Donald Trump coined the epithet “China virus” to rename Coronavirus, Moscow kept a deafening silence. Finally, on Sunday, March 29, Moscow broke that silence. That the first Russian statement came at the level of the Russian foreign ministry makes this particularly significant. In an exclusive remark, a …
Continue reading “Russia quizzes US on coronavirus’ parentage”
The optics of the Russian oil leviathan Rosneft’s decision to sell its subsidiary Rosneft Trading SA and sell all its assets in Venezuela after the US Treasury sanctioned its trading arm two weeks ago as part of Washington’s regime change project to oust president Nicolás Maduro, may not look good to the uninformed outside observer. It may …
Continue reading “A Russian firewall for Venezuela against US sanctions”
Prisoners in overcrowded Afghan jails. (File photo) The US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad apparently overreached by effusively welcoming the 21-member list announced in Kabul on Thursday by President Ashraf Ghani to engage with the Taliban in the format of the forthcoming intra-Afghan dialogue. Khalilzad tweeted on Thursday: “I want to congratulate Afghan …
Continue reading “Taliban gets Khalilzad leg before wicket but won’t appeal”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L), UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed (R) held a phone conversation, March 27, 2020 The phone call by the UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday signifies in many ways a major development in regional politics. The official UAE news …
Continue reading “Coronavirus hastens an Arab rapprochement”
Bittier political rivals Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Benny Grantz (R) joins hands in forming national unity government. (File photo) Imagine, in the 2019 poll, the BJP-led alliance led by Narendra Modi just fell short of securing an absolute majority and despite all the super genius of the party to do horse trading, a majority still …
Continue reading “Israeli politics wins — thanks to coronavirus”
Russian President Vladimir Putin donning a bright yellow full-body hazmat suit and respirator as he visited a hospital on Moscow outskirts that is treating coronavirus patients, March 24, 2020 Soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation on Wednesday on the government’s coronavirus response and measures to be adopted to deal with the …
Continue reading “Covid-19: Modi, Putin to coordinate efforts”
