Erdogan’s Policies and Turkey on November 11, 2021Last month, Turkey made it into the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog headquartered in Paris. Turkey now joins its close ally Pakistan in FATF’s crosshairs. Surprisingly, Turkey becomes the largest economy to be included in this list. The FATF listing for Ankara comes […]
Pakistani Taliban: a Cause of Concern For Islamabad on October 21, 2021Attacks carried out by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) aka Pakistani Taliban have increased to the highest level in over four years after the US left Afghanistan and the Afghan Taliban took power. The TTP has been emboldened by the developments in next-door Afghanistan. This has complicated the internal security scenario for Pakistan as the country is […]
Tough Road Ahead for Taliban on October 14, 2021The Taliban’s announced 33-member interim cabinet is exclusively Taliban, and almost all ministers are of Pashtun ethnicity. Women have no positions in this new setup. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs has been dissolved. And the sinister Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has been re-established. This clearly illustrates that the […]
Why Afghan Forces Vanished So Fast? on August 18, 2021The Taliban now control almost the whole of Afghanistan including the capital city, Kabul, almost two decades after they were driven out by US troops. It was widely expected that after the United States’ complete withdrawal the Taliban will make significant territorial gains. But no one expected that it will happen at that fast pace […]
Is Kurdistan the new flashpoint? on June 30, 2021Kurdistan is back in the news. Military clashes broke out at the beginning of this month between the Kurdistan Development Party (KDP) – the region’s biggest political party – and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). This has sparked debate as to whether these two Kurdish giants are heading towards fully-fledged confrontation. The Kurdistan Regional […]
Palestinian Islamic Jihad — a dark horse on June 2, 2021The latest round of escalations between Israel and armed groups from Gaza has recently concluded. This saw thousands of rockets fired towards Israeli cities and Israel Defence Forces (IDF) responded with overwhelming airstrikes. The biggest group and de-facto ruler of the Gaza Strip — Hamas — received much attention during this flare-up. But it was […]
What Ghani can learn from Assad on May 18, 2021The US military is rapidly working on its complete withdrawal from Afghanistan and has already closed an important base in volatile Helmand province. Its air force is busy transporting military hardware out of the country. It is estimated that some 1,300 pieces of equipment that can’t be removed will either destroyed or given to the […]
Afghan forces still struggling on April 20, 2021US President Joe Biden has announced plans to pull out all United States troops from Afghanistan by September 11, ending the longest war in American history. In Kabul, many fear that Afghan security forces won’t be able to defend the country or even big cities if the Taliban choose to march on after US pullout. […]
Core concepts of Taliban’s Islamic Emirate has not changed on March 17, 2021Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which was the official name of the Taliban regime before being deposed by the United States in late 2001. The Taliban has always insisted on calling itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In June 2013, when its de-facto embassy in Doha, Qatar was founded, the Taliban insisted on calling it the […]
Qatar came out with flying colours on February 7, 2021When the Saudi crown prince, together with the UAE ruler, Mohammed bin Zayed, moved against Qatar in late 2017, the charge sheet against the tiny Gulf state was long. They, along with Bahrain and Egypt, accused their neighbour of backing Iran’s ambitions, and supporting Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. The Arab neighbours of Doha […]