On February 18, Washington announced sanctions on the ship laying Nord Stream 2 and its owner. They amount to little and will not placate pipeline opponents. However, a better gas transit contract for Ukraine could provide a way to move past U.S. pipeline sanctions. When, or if, completed, Nord Stream …

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud held talks on Monday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Doha about improving relations between the two countries, the Qatar state news agency QNA reported. The visit to the Qatari capital comes after Saudi Arabia and its …

Lebanon’s president told the army and security forces on Monday to clear roadblocks after a week of protests over a collapsing economy and paralysed government, but the army chief warned that troops should not get sucked into the political deadlock. President Michel Aoun issued the call to open up the …

A major oil port and Aramco residential area were attacked with a drone and ballistic missile in eastern Saudi Arabia on Sunday. A “petroleum tank farm” at Ras Tanura Port, one of the largest oil shipping ports in the world, was attacked with a drone in the morning, the energy …

A crisis was expected in Armenia after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, and it did not take long to arise. It started as an arm-twisting exercise between the civilian and military authorities of Armenia but evolved to further consolidate Russia’s influence in the country. Hopes were high when Nikol Pashinyan won …

The incidence of jihadist radicalisation in India, across all its states, remains remarkably low when compared to West Asia, Africa and even Europe. Of the 177 ISIS sympathisers arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) since 2014, Tamil Nadu, at 34, accounted for the largest number of those arrested, as …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Afghanistan that it may have to face a Taliban onslaught on its own if President Ashraf Ghani fails to urgently consider proposals on accelerating the peace process. “I must also make clear to you, Mr. President, that as our policy process continues …

The Palestinian people should have been federated with Jordan in 1948. Arabs need to maintain the Jews as their enemy. The intersectionality movement has consolidated around the Palestinian cause and that’s just preposterous. These are just some of the notions shared by Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse, who will speak at …

Assad is still there, a pyrrhic victor offering no credible prospects of reconciliation for the Syrian people and exercising limited sovereignty over a land left prey to foreign powers. After a decade of unfathomable violence and human tragedy that has made Syria the defining war of the early 21st century, …

Brent crude, the international standard, surpassed $70 per barrel for the first time in over a year. Oil prices remained elevated Monday as Saudi Arabian oil facilities were targeted by drone strikes just days after the largest crude exporting nations in the world said they would not increase output. Brent …