Robert Fisk It amazes me that all these warriors of the air don’t regularly crash into each other. Let me try to get this right. The Saudis are bombing Yemen because they fear the Shia Houthis are working for the Iranians. The Saudis are also bombing Isis in …
Read More »Kazakh Leader Chooses Moscow for His First Visit After Re-election
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev will come to Moscow on May 8-9, attending Victory Day celebrations in the Russian capital as part of his first foreign visit after re-election, the president’s press service announced in a Monday statement. Nazarbayev will also participate in an informal meeting of CIS leaders, as well as a …
Read More »Containment: The Gulf States’ Game Plan for Yemen
Patrick Megahan and Oren Adaki The Saudi-led international coalition operating in Yemen announced last Tuesday it had ended the first phase of its nearly month-long campaign in the country. Though the coalition fell short of its stated goal of returning Yemen’s internationally recognized government to power, it insists that in …
Read More »A new war in the Balkans?
VERDA ÖZER On the one hand, violence is re-erupting in Bosnia. On the other hand, Albania and Serbia seem to be at odds. And Serbia still doesn’t accept Kosovo’s independence. What is happening in the Balkans? Are we on the brink of a new war in Bosnia and …
Read More »King, El-Sissi focus on regional peace
GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN Key regional issues including the continuing Yemen crisis figured prominently during talks between Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi here on Saturday. “The visit of El-Sissi, lasting less than two hours, focused on the restive regional scene, …
Read More »These are the odds of who will win the 2016 election
HUNTER WALKER AND ANDY KIERSZ Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) isn’t just surging in the polls. Gamblers are also increasingly putting their money on him to win the 2016 presidential race. Business Insider got updated odds on the election from Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, on Tuesday. As she was …
Read More »White House Looks to Ease Arab Fears Over Iran Nuclear Pact
By HELENE COOPER The Obama administration is scrambling for reassurances it can present this month at a Camp David summit meeting to persuade Arab allies that the United States has their backs, despite a pending nuclear deal with Iran. Officials at the White House, the Pentagon and the …
Read More »The Pentagon’s ‘Long War’ Pits NATO Against China, Russia and Iran
By Pepe Escobar Whatever happens with the nuclear negotiations this summer, and as much as Tehran wants cooperation and not confrontation, Iran is bound to remain — alongside Russia — a key US geostrategic target. As much as US President Barack Obama tried to dismiss it, the Russian sale of the …
Read More »Iran and Saudi Arabia on a Collision Course
Farzin Nadimi To prevent recent airline and shipping incidents from escalating into a wider military confrontation with Iran, all sides will need to exercise great caution in the Persian Gulf and the skies over Yemen. On April 28, Saudi-led coalition aircraft bombed runways at Yemen’s al-Rahaba Airport to …
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