After a three-month-long suspension of the nuclear talks in Vienna, the U.S. and Iran appear set to resume diplomatic negotiations on June 28 in Doha, Qatar. The Europeans will continue to act as messengers in Doha as they did during the talks in Vienna. In fact, this relaunch comes thanks …

Intellectual property (IP) has long been a sore point in relations between Washington and Beijing. US officials have repeatedly targeted China for widespread counterfeiting since its economic ‘opening up’ in the late 1970s. But after enduring a punishing series of legal reforms to join the World Trade Organization in 2001, …

The recent disruptions in global supply chain, leading to China losing prominence, are prompting serious discussions on India’s dependency on China. Hitherto, notwithstanding political face-off, India’s fast growth in electronic and electrical and pharmaceutical industries were largely dependent on supply chain from China. Given the China’s prominence in global supply …

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, in the latest in a series of clashes. The Palestinian “Islamic Jihad” militant group said that one of its men was killed “confronting the occupation forces” in Jenin, where …

In remarks at the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, US President Joe Biden announced a sweeping increase in US troop deployments to Europe as part of a plan by NATO to militarize the continent for its ongoing war with Russia and escalating conflict with China. The NATO summit formally invited …

On the eve of the NATO summit focusing on war against Russia in Ukraine as well as confronting China, top officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland agreed on Tuesday in Madrid to a trilateral memorandum of understanding allowing Stockholm’s and Helsinki’s entry into the military alliance. After a meeting attended …

Iraqi tycoon Waheb Tabra worked with Saddam Hussein’s son in the 1990s before making a fortune smuggling cigarettes. Since the U.S. invasion, he has become a symbol of Iraq’s political corruption while dealing with everyone from top politicians to the Islamic State. Key FindingsTabra’s career started in the 1990s with …

Iraqi tycoon Nizar Hanna Nasri sits atop an empire spanning pharmaceuticals, liquor imports, and some of Erbil’s most spectacular real estate developments. But his success was built on a far less visible foundation: A globe-spanning trade in black-market cigarettes. Key Findings Nizar Hanna Nasri’s facilities have fed billions of cigarettes …

European countries have recently resumed imports of phosphate — a key ingredient in fertilizer — from Syria. The trade enriches sanctioned oligarchs, war profiteers, and the Syrian government, but has continued thanks to legal loopholes. Key Findings Imports of Syrian phosphates into Europe have boomed over the past several years.The …

Algeria’s announcement concerning the immediate suspension of the treaty of friendship and good neighborliness concluded with Spain in October 2002, after Madrid’s radical change of position on the Western Sahara issue on March 18, will not have negative consequences on gas contracts signed by the two countries. The ongoing political …