China is closely monitoring and…
The Guyana-Venezuela border dispute, complicated…
Under its effective leader, firebrand ultra-nationalist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraq is theoretically committed to not allowing itself to become overly dependent on any one country. That was the rallying call…
Democrat presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders raised eyebrows on the campaign trail when he referred to Saudi Arabia’s leadership as “murderous thugs”, raising the question of just how concerned the…
The Middle East oil exporters are grappling with depressed demand in their key market, China, due to the coronavirus outbreak. The economies of the Arab Gulf countries are feeling the…
With a fiscal breakeven oil price of just over US$87 per barrel (pb) of Brent this year, around 85 per cent of its revenues still coming from the hydrocarbons sector,…
Ever since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was agreed in principle in 2015 by Iran and the P5+1 group of nations (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, and China plus…
Historically, Russia goes to great lengths to hide or disguise its strategic intentions but it clearly feels empowered enough in the Middle East to very obviously stake its claim in…
The United States is inclined to extend the waiver to Iraq to continue importing electricity and natural gas to Iran, which are vital to Iraq’s energy needs, three senior Iraqi…
Two notable deaths in early January 2020 pushed the greater Middle East to increased tension and instability. There emerges a growing risk, as a result, of a sudden discrete…
As always, it’s the fear of sanctions that provides the leverage Trump seeks in this cat-and-mouse game with Iran. And this time, the leverage is over Iraq, which would like…
Head the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, Fayez al-Sarraj, and Benghazi-based General Khalifa Haftar who is now warring for control of the capital, were actually in the same…
Like many of the lesser-known countries in the Global South, Oman rarely commands the attention of the international community. For the opaque politics of this Arab sultanate, though, the obscurity…
Following the political and popular backlash in Iran over details of its plans to make the Islamic Republic effectively a client state through various multi-layered oil and gas deals, China…
Reports of new rocket fire surfaced late on Wednesday afternoon, landing in Iraq’s Green Zone, home to the US Embassy and other foreign missions, just hours after US President Donald…
The American obsession with Iran is about oil and natural gas. If these two resources had been absent, it is hard to imagine such an intense American focus on the…
The US embassy in Baghdad has urged all US citizens to leave Iraq immediately, after the US killed Iranian military general and hardliner Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander…
Iran had a rough year in 2019 and the New Year is quite likely to bring just as many difficulties to the door of the Islamic republic.Iran came…
President Hassan Rohani made the comments while launching a railway project near Tehran on December 31. "Iran would have earned $200 billion surplus income...if the country were not involved in…
Following the various recent announcements from U.S. President Donald Trump that he wants the country to withdraw from all areas of potential conflict in the Middle East – except Saudi…
Iran’s President has proposed to create a Muslim cryptocurrency as one of a number of means to confront the economic dominance of the United States. Speaking at an Islamic conference in Malaysia…
The Middle East’s massive energy reserves have made it the center of many key geopolitical events throughout history. The presidency of Donald Trump has transformed the power dynamics in the…