Manish Rai

With the recent attacks in Kabul the Taliban demonstrated that it has become too easy for them to strike the capital at will. The Taliban wants to show ordinary Afghans how weak their government is, that it cannot protect them even in its stronghold. The Taliban definitely scored on that front. In the past two […]

The US and Russia are backing a cessation of hostilities agreement in war-torn Syria that has been accepted by most of the parties involved in the conflict. This is the second ceasefire plan in recent times that calls on the warring parties to stop fighting but specifically excludes Islamic State (IS) and the al Qaeda […]

The UN mediated Syrian peace talks in Geneva were abruptly suspended; it was stated that there was more work to be done by the big powers sponsoring the talks between the Syrian sides. The latest, inconclusive Syrian peace talks were attended by representatives of the Syrian government, the Saudi-backed coalition and the high negotiation committee […]

Recently, the Pakistani army boasted that it had the Pakistani Taliban — also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — on the run and that they were in disarray. It was claimed that the punishing, year-long offensive had ousted Taliban insurgents from their most prized tribal sanctuaries. The movement’s various factions were riven by violent […]

Relations between Riyadh and Tehran have been tense ever since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. In recent times, religious competition between the Islamic world’s Shia and Sunni powerhouses have also turned into burgeoning geopolitical rivalry. But the current decision by Saudi Arabia to execute prominent Shia cleric […]

The UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international roadmap for a Syrian peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives. The UN gave its blessings to a plan negotiated earlier in Vienna that calls for […]

Turkey recently shooting down a Russian SU-24 Bomber over Syria has brought Russian-Turkish relations to their lowest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960s. This incident acted as a catalyst but, for quite sometime, Russia-Turkey relations have been strained. Challenges in Turkish-Russian relations commenced with Turkey’s support to the Syrian opposition increasingly […]

Islamic State (IS) again has proved its striking capability beyond Iraq and Syria. Recently, the so-called soldiers of the caliphate appear to have demonstrated chilling outreach, with terrorist attacks against Russia, Lebanon and France. The seemingly synchronised assaults that turned Paris into a war zone came just days after a bombing targeted a Shia district […]

After nearly a month of conducting daily air strikes, Russia is beginning to reveal its political calculations and strategic intent in Syria. A new round of talks in Vienna on a political solution for the Syrian conflict is being conducted in which Russia is about to play a major role. There is a growing sense […]

The recent bombings in Ankara have brought Turkey’s political and ethnic tensions, exacerbated by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, to a grim new level. Some analysts now fear that Turkey has become the battleground in a growing war between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Islamic State (IS). The attacks in Ankara, the Turkish […]