Iran Will Be Trump’s Nemesis – M K Bhadrakumar | Indian Punchline
The White House readout of USA President Donald Trump’s phone call to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday highlighted that the latter “thanked” Trump for his “strong leadership uniting the world against the North Korean menace.”
Modi must be the only world leader who has given such fulsome praise to Trump for his performance vis-a-vis North Korea. And, Trump naturally felt elated.
In reality, though, it wasn’t particularly difficult for Modi to say such a strange thing, because India has no role to play in resolving the North Korea problem. Continue reading →
Murad III, left, Elizabeth I, right. Ullstein Bild, via Getty Images (left); The Print Collector/Getty Images (right)
London — Britain is divided as never before. The country has turned its back on Europe, and its female ruler has her sights set on trade with the East. As much as this sounds like Britain today, it also describes the country in the 16th century, during the golden age of its most famous monarch, Queen Elizabeth I.
One of the more surprising aspects of Elizabethan England is that its foreign and economic policy was driven by a close alliance with the Islamic world, a fact conveniently ignored today by those pushing the populist rhetoric of national sovereignty. Continue reading →
“After what happened yesterday we can’t rule out [the possibility of] new incidents, and, if such incidents occur, we will have to react in one way or another,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters. (Photo: AP)
Heightening the threat of further escalation, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of sophisticated anti-aircraft missile systems to Syria on Wednesday, saying the measure was necessary to “ensure flight safety” after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on Tuesday. Continue reading →
Lebanon was created out of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement between Britain and France reshaped the collapsed Ottoman Empire south of Turkey into the states we know today — Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and to some extent the Arabian Peninsula as well. For nearly 100 years, Sykes-Picot defined the region.
Click map to enlarge
A strong case can be made that the nation-states Sykes-Picot created are now defunct, and that what is occurring in Syria and Iraq represents the emergence of post-British/French maps that will replace those the United States has been trying to maintain since the collapse of Franco-British power.
The Invention of Middle East Nation-States
Sykes-Picot, named for French diplomat Francois Georges-Picot and his British counterpart, Sir Mark Sykes, did two things. First, it created a British-dominated Iraq. Second, it divided the Ottoman province of Syria on a line from the Mediterranean Sea east through Mount Hermon. Everything north of this line was French. Everything south of this line was British. Continue reading →
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran after talks in Geneva on Nov. 24. ARASH KHAMOOSHI/AFP/Getty Images
Summary
What was unthinkable for many people over many years happened in the early hours of Nov. 24 in Geneva: The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran struck a deal. After a decadelong struggle, the two reached an accord that seeks to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program remains a civilian one. It is a preliminary deal, and both sides face months of work to batten down domestic opposition, build convincing mechanisms to assure compliance and unthread complicated global sanctions.
That is the easy part. More difficult will be the process to reshape bilateral relations while virtually every regional player in the Middle East seeks ways to cope with an Iran that is no longer geopolitically encumbered. Continue reading →
The democratic revolutionaries have yet to prove that they are able to lead a country – in Egypt or anywhere else.
LET ME come back to the story about Zhou Enlai, the Chinese communist leader. When asked what he thought about the French Revolution, he famously answered: “It’s too early to say.”
This was considered a typical piece of ancient Chinese wisdom – until somebody pointed out that Zhou did not mean the revolution of 1789, but the events of May 1968, which happened not long before the interview in question.
Even now it may be too early to judge that upheaval, when students tore up the cobblestones of Paris, confronted the brutal police and proclaimed a new era. It was an early forerunner of what is happening today all over the world.
QUESTIONS ABOUND. Why? Why now? Why in so many totally different countries? Why in Brazil, Turkey and Egypt at the same time? Continue reading →
!["After what happened yesterday we can't rule out [the possibility of] new incidents, and, if such incidents occur, we will have to react in one way or another," Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters. (Photo: AP)](https://i0.wp.com/www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/headlines/putin_3.jpg)
Iran Will Be Trump’s Nemesis – M K Bhadrakumar | Indian Punchline
Iran Will Be Trump’s Nemesis – M K Bhadrakumar | Indian Punchline
Modi must be the only world leader who has given such fulsome praise to Trump for his performance vis-a-vis North Korea. And, Trump naturally felt elated.
In reality, though, it wasn’t particularly difficult for Modi to say such a strange thing, because India has no role to play in resolving the North Korea problem. Continue reading →
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