Economics

Merve Sebnem Oruc On 2 August, 1990, Iraqi forces blew into Kuwait. The main reason for the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was economic; Iraq couldn’t pay its huge debts after eight years of war with Iran. Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait of overproduction of oil from the two countries’ …

Low oil prices are eating into defense spending in the Gulf region, one of the world’s largest arms markets, with budgets trimmed for the first time in a decade this year and deeper cuts expected in 2016, according to a report published on Thursday. Overall spending fell to …

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya Because of the Turkish government’s role in the multi-spectrum US-led war against the Syrian Arab Republic, a war of words has ignited between Ankara and Moscow. Russia, however, is not alone in accusing Turkey of being involved in the theft of Syrian and Iraqi oil. …

Scarcely heard amid the guns of Ukraine, the South Stream pipeline, which the Russians want to build through southern Europe to circumvent Ukraine, is still gurgling along in the background. The FT tries hard to hide its glee behind a facade of philosophical twaddle centered around the notion …

Recent meeting between Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani gave rise to a new rhetoric in Turkey: Turkey will be able to meet any shortfall in Russian gas supplies with new imports of Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG). Any new LNG contracts signed with Qatar, …

Despite facing a series of military setbacks throughout Iraq and Syria, ISIS is consolidating its control over a key city in Libya less than 400 miles away from the Italian island of Sicily. Over the past year, ISIS has been deepening its presence in Sirte, a city along Libya’s northwestern Mediterranean …

Iran is entering the global economy, and some investment-bank analysts are starting to get pretty excited. Most outsiders see Iran as an anti-Semitic Islamic state run by extremists who tolerate terrorism (as long as it’s not in Iran). But Iran is also the last large, modern, educated economy …

Russian Defense Ministry has presented photos of oil delivery convoys at Syria-Turkey border, the head of the Russian General Staff’s operative command said. The general staff has irrefutable evidence on Turkey’s involvement in illegal oil trade. Moscow has called on Turkey to open access to the places where, according to the retrieved Russian intel, …

The inclusion of the yuan in the IMF’s basket of world currencies reflects the challenges that face the euro and the dollar, French economist Jacques Sapir told Sputnik. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Monday that it will include the yuan in its basket of currencies that make up the Special …