This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Douglas Broom, Senior Writer, Formative Content Think about energy generation in the Middle East and you probably think of oil. But in fact, the region is at the forefront of the race to decarbonize energy production. In March, production […]How solar is powering the Middle East towards renewables
March 27, 2019 by 2 Comments
This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Douglas Broom, Senior Writer, Formative Content Think about energy generation in the Middle East and you probably think of oil. But in fact, the region is at the forefront of the race to decarbonize energy production. In March, production […]France, Germany challenge Trump’s America on Iran and the reign of the dollar
November 22, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]EU-US ties to break over Iran; Democrats’ electoral win may not change it
November 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
After last Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States, the Republicans of President Donald Trump lost the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party. The vote was turned out into a referendum for the Trump administration, and the GOP lost the full control of the two chamber Congress. From now on, the White House will […]How energy infrastructure is shaping geopolitics in East Asia
November 5, 2018 by 1 Comment
This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Miyeon Oh, Director and Senior Fellow of the Asia Security Initiative, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council Large-scale, cross-border energy infrastructure connects states in long-term relationships. A choice of a pipeline route or a decision about […]Erdogan vies to become Middle East Sultan over Khashoggi’s killing
November 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 Khashoggi affair: A global complot staged behind closed doors
October 25, 2018 by Leave a Comment
For two weeks now practically all Western governments and media are at rooftops for the barbaric murder of Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul. Very few people outside the oil Kingdom and the circles of Middle East ‘experts’ knew about the man, before he was massacred by his compatriots. […]Security Council urged to act with ‘one strong voice’ on raft of ills plaguing Middle East and North Africa
June 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the United Nations. Ambassadors in the Security Council have been urged by the United Nations Secretary-General to find ‘much-needed consensus’ to resolve the myriad challenges in the Middle East and North Africa. António Guterres issued the call during a debate in the chamber on Monday, focusing on […]America writes-off Iran, blocks Europe’s Tehran talks
May 24, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Macron crowned king of Europe in Washington D.C.; just a working meeting with Trump for Merkel
April 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 missiles fired against Damascus, Syria divided Europe deeply
April 16, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Trump reshapes the Middle East at the expenses of Europe
January 25, 2018 by 3 Comments
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
January 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Europe’s far-right launches attacks on neighboring nations
December 21, 2017 by Leave a Comment
This newspaper had predicted that Europe’s extreme right wing, almost fascist political parties, unable to deliver their phoney promises after reaching government posts, will try to play the aggressive chauvinism card. Old Continet’s’s nations have paid dearly in the past millennia for jingoism and chauvinist violence. However, after many decades of peace in Europe and […]Destabilizing Lebanon after burning Syria; plotting putsch at home: King and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
November 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Dangerous Trumpism in the Middle East with an anti-European edge
May 25, 2017 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Turkey’s Erdogan provokes the US and the EU by serving jihadists and trading on refugees
December 1, 2016 by 3 Comments
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, after having declared war against the political, judiciary and civic structures of his own country, employs the same belligerent tactics in the domain of foreign policy. He now threatens to send to Europe 3 million refugees and immigrants who are stationed in Turkey. True, more than three million people, […]Trump beats Clinton but Americans will learn the hard way that the US can’t change with an election
November 9, 2016 by 1 Comment
With a large part of voters disgusted from this US Presidential race, which reached unseen before heights of bitterness, hatred, toxic recrimination and another part of Americans ready to contest the result, had Donald Trump lost the race. In the end, he achieved a landslide win and will become the next President of the USA. […]The West castigates Turkey’s Erdogan for the ruthless political cleansing
July 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last week, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defied his western allies, who have called for restrain and the rule of law in the wide ranging purge of the country after the failed coup. With the basic human rights hindered, his ruthless cleansing of the military, the judiciary, the public administration, the education system and […]The US and EU decisively oppose Erdogan’s plans for Turkey and beyond
July 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday, John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, participated in the EU Foreign ministers’ council in Brussels, where the main topic on the agenda was the attempted coup in Turkey and its aftermath. The obvious reason for this joint Euro-American session of foreign ministers was to clearly show and for everybody to understand that […]EU-Turkey deal on migrants kicked off but to who’s interest?
April 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday, 4 April, Greece and Turkey kicked off the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement. For migrants and refugees alike it foresees deportation from the Greek islands to Turkey, just some dangerous miles eastwards, over rough sea straights at times. Ankara is to receive from Brussels € 3+3 billion for that. During the past twelve […]For how long will terror and economic stagnation be clouding the European skies?
March 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Some days ago the European statistical service, Eurostat confirmed that the inflation rate in the euro area for February was well into the negative part of the chart at -0.2%. This is an infallible sign that Eurozone remains in the stagnation or even the recession region of the economic cycle for a sixth year in […]Is there a chance for the West to win the war on terror?
March 24, 2016 by Leave a Comment
On the night of 13 November 2015 in Paris, after the ISIS operatives had hit almost simultaneously a concert hall, a major football stadium and some restaurants and bars leaving 130 dead and hundreds injured, the French President Francois Hollande said “we are at war”. Last Tuesday morning the same kind of ‘armed forces’ and […]Erdogan’s electoral win on a ‘me or chaos’ dilemma means trouble for everybody
November 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The dilemma ‘me or chaos’ that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hurled at his compatriots in last Sunday’s election paid dividends. And this despite the fact that he did what he could to produce frightening samples of the kind of chaos he had in mind. Understandably, then the Turkish voters didn’t give a super-majority […]Drowning in the Mediterranean this summer? Many happy returns
August 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
This month the European Commission approved 23 multiannual national programs “under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF). The total funding for the agreed programs is approximately €2.4 billion, for the period 2014-2020… 22 national programs were already approved in March, and an additional 13 programs will be approved […]Why France, Italy and the US press Germany to accept a cheaper euro and pay for Greece
August 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Since last March the European Central Bank has being pumping at least €60 billion a month into Eurozone’s financial system, under its ‘expanded asset purchase program’, aimed at reviving the stagnating price level and energizing the sleepy real economy. The objective is to bring inflation close to 2%; the target rate set by ECB’s monetary […]The West – the EU and the US – is writing off Turkey’s Erdogan
June 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment
For the first time in the history of the EU-Turkish relations the European Parliament openly and loudly welcomed last week the heavy losses of the governing party in a general election. The MEPs actually rejoiced on “the most inclusive and representative parliament in Turkish modern history, reflecting the country’s diversity”, forgetting that it’s a hang […]Why is the EU launching a doomed policy in stopping immigrant waves? What are the real targets?
May 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
For what it’s worth, the Libyan government, the one recognized by Europe and the West, rejected the EU plan to carry out military operations in the country’s territorial waters and soil against the traffickers of immigrants. This reaction by the one of the two Libyan governments is quite understandable, because it’s practically impossible to distinguish […]EU’s core members are eyeing larger parts of arms trade and of world map
May 14, 2015 by 1 Comment
Last Friday, 8 May, the European Commission released two documents setting a path for defense and security cooperation within the EU. The reports will be presented in an upcoming discussion by the competent 28 Ministers on 18 May and the Heads of State and Government in the European Council of 25 June. The two documents […]The EU threatens to occupy Libya militarily; is another colonial war brewing?
April 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment
It was really deplorable to watch the 28 EU leaders who gathered in Brussels last week after the hecatombs of drowned emigrants, to solemnly discuss aggressive military operations on the soil and the sea ports of their Mediterranean neighbours. They decided to use military force and thus kill people, in order to forcefully reverse the […]Does the West reserve the fate of Libya and Syria for others? How does this relate to the EU’s Neighborhood Policy?
April 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last Monday the High Representative and Vice-president of the European Commission Federica Mogherini delivered the opening speech, in the ministerial meeting of EU’s Southern partners, in the context of the European Neighborhood Policy that took place in Barcelona. At some point she noticed that out of the 38 foreign ministers who were supposed to participate […]Can Obama attract Iran close to the US sphere of influence?
April 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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 […]Why and how did ISIS and Muslim fundamentalism gain momentum this year?
December 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Investment Bank chose the perfect timing at the end of the year to take stock of its support to Egypt, or probably not? On 22 December 2014 EIB published a Press release entitled “Supporting Egypt’s democratic transition: a priority for EIB totalling more than €800 m of projects financed over the last three […]Where is Egypt leading the Middle East and the Mediterranean economy?
July 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There is no doubt that the Egyptian experiment of democratic political and economic transformation of the country by the Muslim Brotherhood has failed in every respect and the West recognised it. No wonder why no western government or the UN termed the intervention of the Egyptian army and the toppling of President Mohamed Morsi, as […]
