In a few hours from now, by this evening per IST, it is expected that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on the South African request for provisional measures to stop what it argues is Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. It is a poignant moment: an ex-apartheid country is censuring an …
India gets a rude awakening in West Asia
Britain’s HMS Diamond deploys missiles to attack Yemen From the standpoint of affirming ‘solidarity’ with the regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the October 7 attack, India has swung away to the far horizon and has unceremoniously dumped the US-Israeli axis, which provided beacon light to Delhi’s West Asian policies in the past few …
Palestine: EU’s Borrell bats for US
Video image of a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile hitting a radar dome at Israeli air base on Mount Meron, Jan. 6, 2024 The diplomatic arena of the Middle East was dominated in the past week by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s regional tour to Türkiye, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West …
India’s turnaround on Palestine has more than meets the eye
A Palestinian man carries his daughter’s body near Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza after she was killed by an Israeli airstrike Indian diplomacy is ending 2023 with a momentous turnaround. What began as a course correction necessitated by the torrential flow of events in West Asia is assuming strategic overtones. Truly, the aberration in India’s policies can …
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The Middle East at an inflection point
US President Joe Biden (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct 18, 2023 It has been a perennial hope and expectation that Israel would abandon the path of repression, colonisation and apartheid as state policies and instead accept a negotiated settlement of the Palestine problem under pressure from …
India, US are on pathway to contain China
The meeting of foreign and defence ministers of India and the US in the ‘2+2’ format took place in New Delhi, November 10, 2023 If the United States is a declining power and China’s rise inevitable in the Indo-Pacific; if Russia regards itself as a global power and is determined to bury the US-dominated rules-based …
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Arab-Iran amity is a geopolitical reality
Palestinians work in the debris of buildings targeted by Israeli airstrikes in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza, Nov 1, 2023 The forthcoming first visit by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi to Saudi Arabia on November 13 marks a milestone in the rapprochement between the two countries mediated by China in March. The relationship is fast acquiring …
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US, Israel to open second front in Lebanon
A joint meeting of the US and five Arab foreign ministers took place in Amman on November 4, 2023 to discuss the Palestine question The announcement late Sunday night by the US Central Command [CENTCOM] headquartered in Doha about the arrival of a Ohio-class American nuclear submarine in its “area of responsibility” presages a significant …
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Hezbollah takes to the high ground
Israeli forces have met with fierce resistance in Gaza, including militants armed with anti-tank missiles The Palestine question, which Benjamin Netanyahu had thought he had all but resolved by incrementally assimilating “all of Israel” as a Zionist entity, has roared back to the centre stage of West Asian politics and international society, thanks to Hamas, …
Neocon regime change in Gaza will complicate ‘two-state solution’
President of Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak (L) at Cairo, October 20, 2023 The world-wide condemnation of Israel’s horrific violation of international humanitarian law is not deterring its military operations in Gaza. In remarks on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the calls for ceasefire, saying these “are calls for …
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