Human rights breaches in Iran, Tunisia and Cambodia

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions on the respect for human rights in Iran, Tunisia and Cambodia. Iran: in particular the poisoning of hundreds of schoolgirls Referring to numerous incidents since November 2022, where thousands of girls and women across Iran have […]

Parliament calls for more sanctions against Iranian regime

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. All those responsible for human rights violations should face EU sanctions and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps should be on the EU terrorist list, MEPs urge. The Iranian regime’s blatant disregard for human dignity and the democratic aspirations of its own citizens as well […]

President Metsola condemns Iranian sanctions on Members of the European Parliament

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. EP President Roberta Metsola has condemned the decision of the Iranian regime to sanction several MEPs, as well as journalists, human rights defenders and institutions. “On behalf of the European Parliament, I strongly condemn the decision of the Iranian regime to sanction members of […]

Iran: MEPs want EU to sanction officials responsible for Mahsa Amini’s death

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Parliament condemns the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran and asks for EU sanctions against her killers and those involved in quashing the ensuing street protests. In a resolution adopted on Thursday, Parliament takes stock of developments in Iran following the death of 22-year-old […]

Afghan refugees: €21 million in humanitarian aid for host communities and vulnerable populations in Pakistan and Iran

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission is releasing an additional €21 million in humanitarian aid for Afghan refugees in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. The announcement was made at the International Conference on 40 Years of Hosting Afghan Refugees held in Pakistan. On the occasion, Commissioner for Crisis […]

Statement by President von der Leyen on recent developments related to Iran and Iraq

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. “After recent developments in Iraq, now it is important to halt the cycle of violence so that one more action does not give rise to the next one, and instead space is again created for diplomacy. Europe has a special responsibility here. As […]

Trump blocks US warmongers from bombing Iran

Last week the American military-industrial complex (MIC) was ‘cocked & loaded’ to attack key targets in Iran, after Tehran downed a US military unmanned spy drone. Of course, the two sides clash over the exact position of the drone’s hit. However, the Iranians should have avoided hitting an American war machine outside of their air […]

Human Rights breaches in Iran, Kazakhstan and Guatemala

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. MEPs deplore human rights violations and all forms of political repression in Iran, Kazakhstan and Guatemala. On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions taking stock of the human rights situation in Iran, Kazakhstan and Guatemala. Iran must stop criminalising the work of women’s […]

Art has the power to change the world, says this renowned Iranian muralist

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Mahsa Shamsaei, Founder, Young Persian Artists Mehdi was born and raised in Iran. Coming from a farming family, he was by all expectations supposed to be a shepherd. However, going to University in Tehran to study fine art and […]

Human rights breaches in Iran, Egypt and Tanzania

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. MEPs urge Iran to release jailed Sakharov laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh, and deplore state attacks on human rights defenders and LGTBI people in Egypt and Tanzania. On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions taking stock of the human rights situation in Iran, Egypt and […]

France, Germany challenge Trump’s America on Iran and the reign of the dollar

Last week, the French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged the US President Trump by deciding to create a real European army. This week, the two European leaders said they are seriously working on the project to build a financial/trade-clearing mechanism, meant to override the American sanctions against Iran. In both […]

Erdogan vies to become Middle East Sultan over Khashoggi’s killing

It’s plain by now that the Turkish ‘Sultan’, President Tayyip Erdogan vies to directly implicate Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud or MbS, the actual ruler of his country in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The victim was for decades a very high placed systemic journalist in Riyadh, loyally serving the […]

The new North America trade deal USMCA punishes German cars

The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is dead. Long live the new United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA). The three North American nations will continue trading goods of a value of at least $ 1.2 trillion yearly between them. The US President Donald Trump had termed NAFTA as the worse trade deal his country […]

Trump goes ahead with plan to undo globalization; targets China and EU

Harley-Davidson motor cycles is the first American iconic company to suffer in more than one way from Trump’s action aimed at reversing the world economic order. It’s a matter of fact by now that the ‘America first’ President seems decided to overturn globalization. In doing so, apart from causing global disorder, he will embarrass a […]

Human rights: breaches in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. MEPs call for the respect of human rights defenders, fair treatment of prisoners and for the respect of women’s rights in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Iran urged to release immediately all EU-Iran nationals unfairly imprisoned MEPs condemn the imprisonment of EU-Iranian dual nationals […]

Macron in St. Petersburg didn’t oppose Trump on Iran, in Putin’s presence

Emmanuel Macron, the French President, who has regained the European political initiative for his country, traveled to St. Petersburg, in Russia last Thursday. This was not an official state visit though. Macron just decided to participate in St. Petersburg’s annual International Economic Forum (SPIEF). A high end business delegation accompanied him. Macron met Putin only […]

America writes-off Iran, blocks Europe’s Tehran talks

While the European Union and more so Germany have being relentlessly working to save the nuclear non-proliferation deal with Iran, last Monday the new US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, shattered any opening for negotiations with Tehran. Until Pompeo dropped his bombshell, the EU was discussing a new pact with Iran, on the basis of […]

Is Germany closer to Russia than the West? Nord Stream II and Iran count more

Last Friday, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, rushed to Sochi, the Black Sea seaside Russian resort to meet Vladimir Putin. It was the first visit by a Western leader to meet him at home, after his fourth inauguration on 7 May as President of the vast country, this time for six more years. Looking through […]

Europe split in confronting the US sanctions on Iran, Washington isolated

Donald Trump, the ‘America First’ President in withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear non-proliferation deal, doesn’t seem to be honoring his lead electoral motto. It seems that he is serving more the interests of Saudi Arabia and to a lesser extent of Israel. Riyadh has much at stake in its inimical interaction with Iran. Israel on […]

France-Germany: Divided in Europe, USA united in…Iran

Last Tuesday afternoon the President of ‘America first’ Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Nuclear non-Proliferation Agreement with Iran. The deal is known as P5+1 and was co-signed by the US, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. There is no information regarding when the US is to re-introduce its economic sanctions against Iran, and […]

Macron crowned king of Europe in Washington D.C.; just a working meeting with Trump for Merkel

A rare service Donald Trump is currently doing for the Europeans is that he offers them a platform for important common action to be undertaken by the French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They are both visiting the White House this week, but expect quite different reception from Trump; pompous state […]

The West cannot ignore Russia; dazed Germany sitting on the fence

After the missile attacks by the Western trio of US, Britain and France against Damascus and other positions in war torn Syria, the Russian overlords and Assad regime in that part of the world, continues pursuing their agenda, as if nothing happened. From a certain angle truly nothing has changed regarding the military and political […]

The missiles fired against Damascus, Syria divided Europe deeply

Last Friday night till the early hours of Saturday morning the US-France-Britain alliance attacked the Assad/Putin regime of Damascus, with a precipitation of missiles. Seemingly though, the hits have had a greater political impact on Europe than in Syria itself. Germany and Italy, the other two major European Union countries with strong interests in the […]

A new catastrophic phase in the Syrian carnage

At a time when Donald Trump, the US President of ‘America first’ had just urged his military to leave Syria, the gas attack in Douma, near Damascus seems to change the prospect for Washington abandoning this country to Assad, Putin, Erdogan and the Iranians. Last Saturday, more than 60 people died and about 1000 were […]

Trump reshapes the Middle East at the expenses of Europe

Trump’s completely unwarranted aggressiveness towards the rest of the world took a violent thrust this week. His vice President Mike Pence speaking at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, announced a speed-up of the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The move is now to be completed before the end of next […]

Erdogan’s Turkey in dire straits for flip flop policies in the Middle East

Last week a US federal court convicted Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive of Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank. This is a major financial institution of this country, controlled directly by the government. Attila found guilty on five accounts, for evading the American sanctions imposed on Iran. Most of those punitive measures were lifted in April 2015, in […]

Trump: Hostile to Europe, voids Tillerson’s “ironclad” ally pledge

At the end of last week, Rex Tillerson, the US State Department Secretary was intentionally undermined by President Donald Trump. This surprise move from the White House came only hours after the former gave an “’ironclad’ promise of U.S. support to its oldest allies in Europe”. To undercut this pledge, the White House leaked information […]

Destabilizing Lebanon after burning Syria; plotting putsch at home: King and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

Last week the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, son of King Salman placed the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Al-Hariri under house arrest in Riyadh and forced him to resign his premiership. The Sunni Lebanese premier has a double citizenship, Lebanese and Saudi Arabian. His family has extended business interests and wealth […]

Trump’s pounding of Iran less harsh than expected, leaves arrangement open

Trump did again what he has been good at. This time he pounded the non-nuclear proliferation agreement with Iran. To be reminded, this was the P5+1 nations (US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) agreement of 2015 with Iran , by which the latter country accepted to stop its nuclear program and be duly inspected […]

Trump’s Russian affair spills over and upsets Europe

The turmoil in the American political system, caused by President Donald Trump’s Russian affair is having spillovers in Europe. Of course, it’s not the first time that Trump and his out of control political ‘inspirations’ instigate trouble for the Old Continent and the rest of the world. This time however, the US Congress prepares new […]

Dangerous Trumpism in the Middle East with an anti-European edge

All main stream media analysts agree that the US President Donald Trump last Sunday 21 May in Riyadh, completely reversed his predecessor Barack Obama’s Middle East policy. He made it evidently biased, aggressive and dangerously personal, despite the extensive use of the word ‘peace’. In a matter of hours Trump endorsed one hundred per cent […]

US, Russia oblige each other in Syria and Ukraine selling off allies

The US – Russia rapprochement, as having been set in motion by the new tenant of the White House, is to be tested first and foremost in Syria and Ukraine. Washington and Moscow support opposing sides in two catastrophic and bloody civil wars, which have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and thrown millions of […]

Syria: A bloody tracer of Trump – Putin rapprochement

Despite the dreadful fact that the fighting and the bloodshed continues on many spots on the ground, the Astana agreement for a truce in Syria backed by Russia, Turkey and Iran seems to present a good chance for peace. Last Tuesday, the above three foreign powers and their proxies implicated in the Syrian civil war, […]