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, […]

Turkey caught in a vicious Syrian circle bringing terror and war at home

The Turkish government, under the iron hand of the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, felt obliged to further challenge the Americans in the troubled region of the Middle East this past week. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak and Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin questioned the presence of the US led coalition forces at the key air […]

What the US and the world can expect from the 8 November election?

From Beijing and Tehran to Brussels and London, and further away to Mexico City and Caracas the night of 8 November will create a landmark in contemporary world history. The results of the US election and the new occupant of the White House in Washington D.C will certainly affect the way the world turns around. […]

ISIS fighters fleeing Mosul for Syria can topple Assad. Why did the US now decide to uproot them from Iraq?

The failure of the US, EU, Turkey and Saudi Arabia joint strategy in the Middle East seems to lead to a complete destruction of any political, economic and state infrastructure in the region, after having failed to fulfill its targets. Just think that the main target of the foreign involvement in Syria was to topple […]

Europe bows to Turkey’s rulers, sends Syrian refugees back to chaos

Last Saturday we learned from his own lips that the President of the European Council Donald Tusk has “thick skin”. Of course, people who follow the political day-to-day of the Council already knew it. Tusk made this statement last Saturday from Turkey, a country where thick skin politicians are in abundance. The President of the […]

US – Russia bargain on Syria, Ukraine but EU kept out

President Bashar al-Assad’s regular Syrian army aided by Lebanon Hezbollah fighters plus some Iranians, and of course under the air cover of Russia’s fighter jets last week pushed the ISIS murderers out of the ancient city of Palmyra. Reportedly, a Russian ground special force played also a role in this decisive battle, that probably constitutes […]

Syria: Why did the US now take the Russian offer for a truce? What next?

The US-Russia plan for a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria, endorsed by the UN Security Council on Friday 26 February kicked off in the early hours of Saturday and two days after is still more or less observed. Understandably the cease-fire may collapse at any moment but the US and Russia seem determined to keep […]

The Syrian knot cannot be cut without devastating consequences

Brussels seems quite lost with what is happening now in Syria. The statement issued last Monday 15 February by the European High Representative Mogherini and Commissioner Stylianides on the atrocious and murderous attacks on hospitals and schools in Syria stands as an infallible witness to that. At this point in time, the foreign powers, regional or […]

What the world will look like after the Iran and 5+1 deal; the US emerges as major power broker in Middle East

The first to travel to Tehran after the nuclear agreement was struck last week between Iran and the 5+1 (France, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States plus Germany) are the German Vice Chancellor Zigmar Gabriel and Laurent Fabius the French minister for Foreign Affairs. Understandably, French and German dignitaries are more welcomed […]

Can Obama attract Iran close to the US sphere of influence?

The best indications about the fairness of a deal are that all the parties directly involved in it can claim victory, and when it comes to the detailed terms they feel they didn’t get exactly what they wanted. This is exactly what happened after the six major world powers (the P5+1 group of countries, the […]

Can the US-Iran rapprochement change the world?

The United States global gendarmes and the Shiite Iran were brought together in a common fight against the Islamic States murderers in Iraq and Syria, thus opening the way for a wider understanding between the two until recently sworn enemies. The American government saw one more major geostrategic advantage in the rapprochement with Tehran. And […]

France sneaks into the Geneva US-Iran talks to claim its business share in Tehran

The just-concluded bilateral talks between the US and Iran, held Monday and Tuesday in Geneva, can be determinant for the future, shaping of a comprehensive nuclear deal between Iran and the West. The talks were announced last Saturday and indeed took place during a decisive time, after a hot winter of discussions and right before […]

EU to gain the most from the agreement with Iran

The fall of oil prices right after the European Union negotiators, working on behalf of the E3+3 group, reached an agreement with Iran, was the first and infallible sign that this was a step towards the right direction, at least for the energy importing countries. In the Geneva negotiations, the West was represented by Catherine […]

What lessons to draw from the destruction of Syria

Three major Middle East countries, Iraq, Egypt and Syria are in a transitory phase or in deadly civil war and all of them being threatened with effective partitioning. After Iraq, the US supported actively by Britain, is now planning an attack to Syria which will certainly lead to a partitioning of the country. In this […]
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