Moscow Process: a glimmer of hope for peace in Afghanistan? on November 14, 2018Russian initiative to facilitate peace talks to seek an end to the 17-year-old war between the US-led coalition forces and the Taliban may not have reached a breakthrough, but has set the stage for future negotiations amongst the stakeholders. Media reports suggest that a Taliban delegation from its Qatar office participated in the event while […]
Iran sanctions a precursor to new cold war? on November 10, 2018President Trump’s sanctions against Iran came into effect on November 5 along with waivers to eight countries(China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey). These waivers, mostly concerned with import of Iranian oil, would be effective for 180 days after which the US administration would review the situation. It is not clear how […]
Taliban-US reconciliation: what are the odds? on November 3, 2018The past week has been quite eventful. Pakistan released Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the founding leaders of the Taliban movement, after eight years of incarceration while the US released five top Taliban leaders from the Guantanamo detention facility. According to the Voice of America (VOA), five senior Afghan Taliban leaders, who were swapped […]
Pakistan’s response to US sanctions against Iran on October 25, 2018November 5, is the US deadline for the world to cease business with Iran following which strict penalties will be imposed on individuals and companies. These US sanctions are not new. Under the D’Amato Law the US had imposed sanctions against Iran in 1996, against companies investing more than $10 million in the energy sector. […]
Security challenges along Pak-Iran borders on October 21, 2018Over a dozen Iranian security personnel were reportedly kidnapped by Baloch dissidents in a predawn raid on 15 October in Mirjaveh, a town bordering Pakistan. In a statement issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) the abductees were stationed in a border post in Iran’s Mirjaveh area when they came under attack from the […]
Pak dealings with Yemen and Syrian crises on October 17, 2018There has been a sharp criticism of the US policy on Syria and Yemen largely described as “a policy of inaction and disengagement”. In the Middle East context, the Syrian crisis, which erupted seven years ago, has caused grave human tragedies and a mass migration of Biblical proportions. The crisis continues unabated but with a […]
Afghanistan: the US’ longest war on October 10, 2018On October 7, 2001, the US attacked Afghanistan ostensibly to punish Osama Bin Laden and his harbours, the Taliban regime. Within less than a month the Taliban regime was decimated; majority of the Taliban foot soldiers melted into the populace while the leadership went underground or took shelter in Pakistan. After 17 years of shock […]