Zafar Iqbal Yousafzai

Last month, leaders at the NATO summit declared China as a constant security threat that could undermine world order—a matter of serious concern. “We recognise that China’s growing influence and international policies present both opportunities and challenges that we need to address together as an Alliance,” read NATO’s declaration. Similarly, G7 announced the Build Back […]

As the US starts pulling out of Afghanistan, Taliban are advancing across the Afghan territory clearly indicating their victory in the war against the US-led NATO and ISAF troops. The US officials on one hand accept they have lost the Afghan war although in grim words, while the Taliban have been repeatedly and bluntly proclaiming […]

Afghanistan’s political and security situation is quite precarious given the intensity of Taliban advances, lack of progress in intra-Afghan talks, and, most importantly, the accelerated US withdrawal. This is not to overlook the American quest to establish bases in the neighbourhood to keep an eye on Afghanistan. Yet things seem to be proceeding in the […]

The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel brokered by Egypt, although violated within a few hours, holds so far. Indeed, the situation is returning to ‘normal’. However, the conflict has cost both the parties dear. More than 217 Palestinians, including 63 children and 38 women, have been martyred and 1400 wounded. The Israeli side lost 12 […]

Afghanistan’s sputtering peace process effectively stalled following President Biden’s announcement of a delayed timetable for US troop withdrawal from the country. And while he failed to acknowledge that this revision violated the US-Taliban Doha agreement — the Taliban, nevertheless, responded by announcing a boycott of all peace talks. Indeed, the Istanbul process scheduled for April […]

History is poised to witness a second superpower’s exit from Afghanistan in four decades. Earlier this month, when US President Joe Biden announced that it was “time to end the forever war”, he was standing in the same Treaty Room as George W Bush when the latter had informed the American people of the retributive […]

Recently, China and Iran formally signed a 25-Year comprehensive cooperation agreement to boost their partnership. The agreement holds great significance for both countries — since they are believed to be adversaries of the US. The agreement contains twenty articles and broadly covers political, economic, security, strategic, military, trade, telecommunication, energy, and cultural areas. Chinese President […]

Presently, Afghanistan’s history is once again witnessing an uncertain and bleak situation due to the changing dynamics of the war-torn country. If one reminds the late 1980s when a superpower, the Soviet Union was preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan after a decade, future plans were underway. Now another superpower US is going to withdraw from […]

India since Nehru’s time has been trying to put itself on the path of a major player in the region on one hand and attain a global position on the other. Besides China, Pakistan is a state which challenges India in many ways that irk the former to a large extent. As a rising power, […]

Iran nuclear program has been a key element of the United States’ Middle East policy. Being controversial for years, the Iran nuclear issue was resolved in July 2015 by inking a deal known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between P5+1 (U.S., UK, China, France, Russia + Germany) and Iran. The deal provided […]