Eurasia

With the Iraq War underway, U.S. Marines were sent to clear out insurgents in the key strategic city of Fallujah in central Iraq in November 2004. The deaths of four U.S. contractors months earlier had sparked an outcry, becoming one of the triggers for a battle that would go on …

The Chabahar Port Transit Project, is of great importance in the “International North–South Transport Corridor” (INSTC), because it is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean., writes Valdai Club expert Vali Kaleji. In his article, Dr. Vali Kaleji, a Tehran-based expert on Central Asia and Caucasian …

Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East. Steven Simon. Penguin Press, New York, 2023. It should be obvious that U.S. policy in the Middle East is now losing influence. Steven Simon’s new book “Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions …

Armenia said it is ready to recognize the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of neighboring Azerbaijan under certain conditions, a compromise that could help end a decades-old conflict and revive an impoverished region. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told a press conference on May 22 that any recognition by …

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has removed Ali Shamkhani as the head of the powerful Supreme National Security Council and replaced him with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who has been under sanctions from the United Nations, the European Union, and the United …

Violent clashes erupted on the Russian-Ukrainian border with Moscow accusing a Ukrainian “sabotage group” of trying to make an incursion into the country, an allegation Kyiv rejected. Explosions and sporadic gunfire could be heard on May 22 in the Belgorod region, with the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, saying that fighting …

There will be a second round for the presidential vote on May 28, but an opposition victory seems unlikely. Turkey is a country where average schooling is 6.5 years. In other words, the average person is a 7th grade drop-out. Ninety-five percent of Turkish citizens have never travelled abroad.

Biden’s about-face raises many questions, but key among them are how effective can the aircraft really be, and what is the endgame? On Friday, the Biden administration paved the way for Western allies and partners to transfer their stocks of American-made F-16 Fighter jets to Ukraine and added that the …

The Arab League’s decision to readmit Syria rewards brutality and betrays victims. It also confirms the marginalization of the United States and the irrelevance of Europe in the region. A collection of Arab countries grouped in the Arab League has brought President Bashar al-Assad back into its fold. The twenty-two-member-strong …

Moldova lacks technical and administrative capacity required for EU accession. Brussels needs to do much more to put its European perspective on track. For Moldova, 2022 was the worst of years and the best of years. Russia’s war in Ukraine turned life upside down. The country, often ranked as the …