The killing of Iranian military leader Qassim Soleimani proves the point: The United States has perfected the art of strengthening Iranian hardliners fuelled by an apparently ingrained misreading of Iranian politics and strategy sustained over decades.

The killing of Qasem Soleimani will lead to the strengthening of Iranian hardliners

The United States stirred a hornet’s nest that stretches far beyond Iraq when it this weekend attacked an Iranian-backed militia. The fallout of the US strikes was immediate in Iraq with pro-Iranian militiamen besieging the US embassy in Baghdad in scenes reminiscent of the run-up in 1979 to the 444-day occupation of the American diplomatic mission in Tehran.

US military strikes in Iraq stir regional hornet’s nest

Like 2019, the new year and perhaps the new decade is likely to be pockmarked by popular protest, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. The question is what the protests that last year toppled the leaders of Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon and Iraq but only led to a genuine transition process in Sudan will produce.

Last year was marked by defiance & dissent, 2020 is likely to be no different

Chinese-Russian military and geopolitical cooperation is flourishing – for now. If, however, the weapons industry is anything to go by, fraying at the edges of close ties between the two Asian powers may be on the horizon.

China-Russia partnership is driven by short-term interests

Athletes, executives and fans are turning sports in an era of defiance and dissent into a battleground for freedom of expression and political change, wherein national and international sports associations adhere to human rights on the spot.

Sports has emerged as battlefield for freedom of expression

A first-ever joint Chinese-Russian-Iranian naval exercise signals that closer Chinese military ties with a host of Middle Eastern nations does not translate into Chinese aspirations for a greater role in regional security any time soon.

Gulf security: Here's why China wants the US to remain the key military player

Desperate for cash, Tajikistan is about to sell yet another vital asset to China at a time that countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives are demanding renegotiation of debt settlements that either forced them to surrender control of critical infrastructure or left them with unsustainable repayments.

China struggles to fend off allegations of debt trap diplomacy

Natural gas could well emerge as the litmus test of how relations among the Gulf’s energy-rich monarchies evolve if and when a Saudi-United Arab Emirates-led alliance and Qatar bury their hatchet.

Natural gas frames future Gulf relations

The Iranian port city of Bandar-e-Mahshahr has emerged as the scene of some of the worst violence in Iran’s brutal crackdown on recent anti-government protests. Located in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province, home to the country’s restive ethnic Arab minority, the protests in Bandar-e-Mahshahr strengthened Iran in its belief that the anti-government outburst was yet another effort to destabilise the Islamic republic by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Protests in Iran seen as a consipiracy to destabilise current political regime

A Czech mayor’s refusal to endorse Beijing’s One China policy potentially sets a high bar as Western powers grapple with how to respond to allegations of excessive use of violence by police against Hong Kong protesters and the implications of leaked documents detailing a brutal crackdown in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang.

Standing up to China's alleged human rights abuses

Saudi efforts to negotiate an end to the Yemen war in a bid to open a dialogue with Iran could call into question continued Gulf support for US President Donald J.

Mending Gulf fences could weaken support for US sanctions against Iran

Mass anti-government protests in several Arab countries are turning into competitions to determine who has the longer breath, the protesters or the government. In Algeria, Lebanon and Iraq, countries in which the leader was either forced to resign or has agreed to step down, authorities appear to be dragging their feet on handovers of power or agreed transitional power-sharing arrangements in the hope that protesters, determined to hold on to their street power until a political transition process is firmly in place, either lose their momentum or are racked by internal differences.

Middle East protests: A tug of war over who has the longer breath

Author

Zee News Rajasthan

Editor

James M Dorsey

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