Geopolitics

Saudi Arabia is burning through foreign reserves at an unprecedented pace as the new king’s generosity toward state workers and conflict in the region further strain public finances already damaged by the slump in oil prices. The kingdom spent $36 billion of the central bank’s net foreign assets – …

By ERIC EDELMAN and TZVI KAHN n a major speech on Thursday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued what amounted to a warning of things to come. He called the U.S. account of Iranian obligations under the nuclear framework agreement “faulty, incorrect and contrary to the substance …

By Michael Deacon The Telegraph According to a preliminary estimate, GDP growth in the UK slowed to 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2015, with output in the construction sector falling for the second consecutive quarter. My question to the panel is: what do you think …

Exclusive: Jim Sillars, who was Alex Salmond’s number two, says party members will insist another referendum is ‘first line’ of 2016 Holyrood manifesto By Ben Riley-Smith The Telegraph The SNP will propose another independence referendum in its Scottish election manifesto, the former deputy leader has said amid fears …

Azer News “Armenia is trying to maintain the status quo by carrying out various armed provocations on the contact line”. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Herbert Salber. Herbert Salber said they are closely following the …

By Elchin Mehdiyev Azer News The trite phrase that “history repeats itself” has been nowadays acquiring the most bizarre forms. If once the US was a colony of Europe, now everything is repeating itself exactly in the opposite direction. And it impossible to give any other name to …

By Sara Rajabova AzerNews Kazakhstan will resume oil production in its largest oil and gas field – Kashagan, located in the north of the Caspian Sea. Vladimir Shkolnik, Kazakhstan’s energy minister said oil production at Kashagan field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea is expected to …

The Pentagon said Wednesday that the U.S. would “be able to respond” if necessary to help a Marshall Islands-flagged ship that was diverted, and boarded, a day earlier by Iran — though it remains unclear how far the U.S. Navy might be willing to go if the tense …

By Abdul Wahed Jalal Nori News Strait In this article, I will attempt to answer two questions: first, what is the status of the Iraqi Kurds in Northern Iraq and, second, will Kurdistan continue to develop itself as a quasi-state while avoiding a direct push toward sovereignty or …