Civilians are the prime victims of Syrian civil war on October 24, 2019On September 23, the international coalition against ISIS entered its sixth year. Since the outset, it has been involved in supporting specific armed factions to expand its influence and to achieve its objectives. Now after five years of its military campaign against Daesh, the international coalition controls about 70 percent of the oil and gas […]
Wang’s nimble response to Trump’s belligerence on October 7, 2019The state councilor and foreign minister of China Wang Yi exhibited his diplomatic brilliance at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and smartly rebuked Trump’s prior rhetoric against China in addition to touching several other global issues ranging from development to protectionism and unilateralism, peace and justice, and climate change. While reiterating that China will not […]
Patriot’s discomfiture swarms Trump to call for a diplomatic solution with Iran on October 3, 2019Pentagon avers that the Patriot air and missile defense system, Patriot Advance Capability-3 (PAC-3), has a proven combat record as it demonstrated its effectiveness and the lethality during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Shortly after Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the US had made such an assertion about an earlier version of Patriot, claiming that […]
Ladakh: an Indian-US ‘playfield’ to contain China, monitor Russia? on September 24, 2019Donald Trump’s hard-selling Kashmir mediation bid was always a non-starter. He now counsels Pakistan and India to resolve all differences, including the Kashmir dispute, through bilateral talks. In other words, the US president has pragmatically vetted India’s divisive and conflict-ridden move to dismantle the autonomous status of its controlled part of Kashmir, splitting the region […]
India’s draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act and enforced disappearances on September 8, 2019Since August 5, the Muslim-dominated Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is in heavy lockdown. Schools and offices are closed. Businesses are shut down. Communication is cut off. A strict curfew is imposed, causing people to starve. Children and adults are confined at homes; medicines are scarce and people from across the sections of the society, […]
Mountbatten’s cynical role at Indian partition on August 31, 2019Pakistan’s path to freedom was crammed with blood, terror, rape, and plunder. In 1947, millions of peaceable people abandoned their hearths and homes and fled India to migrate Pakistan in pursuit of free, safe, and secure lifestyle. The last Viceroy of British India, Lord Mountbatten, had a cynical role in ramping up migrants’ miseries. At […]
Trump’s bizarre silence on Kashmir on August 15, 2019Given America’s wider foreign policy objectives in the region, Pakistan should not put high stakes on Trump to settle the age-old Pakistan-India squabble Murky clouds of yet another intense conflict between Pakistan and India are looming, as the government of India introduced a resolution in parliament to repeal the autonomous status of the Indian-occupied Kashmir, […]
The US-Turkish row isn’t all about S-400 on July 15, 2019Turkey and the US are still deliberating upon setting up a free zone along the Turkish-Syrian border. The US Special Representative for Syria Engagement and the Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIL, James Jeffery, reiterated his erstwhile statement in Cairo and an interview to a Turkish daily, Hürriyet, last month. Ambassador Jeffery […]
South China Sea is the real global flashpoint on June 4, 2019Over the past few years, the US administration, establishment and the media have collectively fussed about the national security threats from Iran. Every time the commotion has fizzled out. Although the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group has arrived in the Persian Gulf, the hype is likely to wane soon. The US will soon […]
Why US is in a better position to negotiate with Taliban? on May 25, 2019Once an old Afghan described the mythical creation of Afghanistan “When Allah had made the rest of the world, He saw that there was a lot of rubbish left over, bits and pieces and things that did not fit anywhere else. He collected them all together and threw them down on to the earth. That […]